Compete 


EXPOSURE 


OF  THE    FORGED 

FALSIFIED 
STATISTICS  «N 
"Coin's  Financial  School" 


UC-NRLF 


CHARLES  H.  8KRGEL  COMPANY,  CHICAGO. 

SERGEL'S  RAILWAY  LIBRARY,  VOL.  1.  No.  8.    June 
1  ti-Monthly      Entered  at  Chicago  Postoffice  as  swond  class  m 
H)  snbscrijitiot)  $1.50  a  year. 


GIFT  ©F 


SOUND  MONEY 


BY 


JOHN  A./FRASER,  JR 


AND 


CHARLES  H.  SERGEL. 


CHICAGO  : 

CHARGES  H.  SERGEI,  COMPANY. 
1895- 


• 


COPYRIGHT,  1895, 

BY 
CHARLES  H.  SERGE L  COMPANY. 


To  the  Honest  Men  of  an  Honest  Nation  : 

We  dedicate  this  exposure 

of  the  fallacies ,  fraudulent  statistics  and  sophistries  of  the 

aggressive  advocates  of  National  repudiation 

and  dishonor. 

—  The  Authors. 


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PREFACE. 

No  argument  or  set  of  arguments  which  depends  upon 
the  employment  of  fraud  or  deception  to  convince  deserves 
to  meet  with  anything  better  than  the  contempt  of  honest 
men. 

It  is  with  this  firm  conviction  that  we  present  the  facts, 
figures  and  conclusions  herein  contained  to  the  considera- 
tion of  all  who  are  interested  in  the  topic  of  the  hour — the 
silver  question. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  entire  argument  for  the  free 
coinage  of  silver  has  been  epitomized  in  ' '  Coin's  Financial 
School,"  we  felt  that  a  comprehensive  reply  to  that  book 
would  of  necessity  involve  a  complete  answer  to  all  that 
can  be  advanced  by  the  advocates  of  what  we  believe 
would  be  a  fatal  financial  revolution.  At  the  same  time 
it  must  be  an  equally  complete  presentation  of  the  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  what  we  believe,  under  present  con- 
ditions, to  be  the  only  sound  money — gold,  and  a  currency 
based  upon  that  most  stable  of  all  values. 

In  every  case  the  arguments  put  into  the  mouths  of  the 
eminent  citizens  who  debate  the  matter  with  Coin  are 
those  to  which  they  themselves  have  given  public  utter- 
ance, either  in  speech  or  print ;  or  to  which  they  have 
privately  given  expression  or  assent.  These  utterances 
have  been  clothed,  so  far  as  practicable,  in  the  very  words 
of  the  men  to  whom  they  are  ascribed. 


No  man  is  misrepresented,  no  man's  views  are  colored 
or  distorted ;  and  not  even  to  point  a  moral  or  adorn  the 
tale  have  the  published  assertions  of  the  author  of  "Coin's 
Financial  School ' '  been  unfairly  presented.  Hvery  propo- 
sition Coin  advances  in  the  present  work  is  quoted  verb- 
ally from  his  book.  Every  argument  in  that  unique 
production  is  fairly  and  squarely  met  with  facts  and  fig- 
ures from  the  authorities  Coin  himself  has  chosen. 

In  "Sound  Money,"  while  the  setting  is  obviously  a 
work  of  fiction,  the  arguments  and  statistics,  unlike  those 
in  "  Coin's  Financial  School,"  are  matters  of  the  strictest 
fact.  In  all  important  cases  the  authority  is  given,  to- 
gether with  the  page  on  which  the  statement  may  be 
found.  We  give  our  personal  pledge  that  our  own  statis- 
tics are  absolutely  reliable  and  ungarbled,  while  those 
ascribed  to  Coin  are  transferred,  sum  for  sum,  from  the 
pages  of  his  "Financial  School." 

JOHN  A.  FRASER,  JR., 
CHARLES  H.  SERGEI,. 


SOUND_MONEY. 

INTRODUCTION. 

'  'Want  stalks  through  your  streets  while  pallid,  ghastly 
Famine  invades  your  tenements.  The  busy  wheels  of 
industry  are  stopped  where  once  their  hum  brought  work 
and  happiness  to  thousands.  Prices  have  fallen  until  the 
gold  bug's  dollar  will  purchase  twenty-five  per  cent, 
more  of  the  products  of  the  soil,  the  mine,  the  shop  and 
the  factory  than  at  any  period  since  the  war.  You  men 
tramp  the  streets  seeking  in  vain  for  work — for  the  poor 
privilege  of  earning  your  bread  in  the  sweat  of  your 
faces,  while  at  home  your  wives  weep  silently  as  they 
vainly  try  to  soothe  the  little  ones  who  cry  aloud  for 
bread.  You  are  writhing  in  the  grasp  of  the  British 
Octopus  which  has  fastened  his  tentacles  about  the  heart 
of  this  Nation — the  hideous  monster  whose  name  is  Gold. 

"  Down  with  him  !  Up  in  your  might,  like  men,  and 
cast  off  the  clutch  which  is  strangling  out  your  life ! 
Strike  off  the  shackles  of  your  financial  slavery  to  the 
Yellow  King  and  restore  the  dollar  of  your  daddies — 
371^  grains  of  pure  silver  freely  coined  at  the  ratio  of 
1 6  to  i  !  Silver,  and  silver  alone,  can  restore  good  times, 
start  the  mills  to  running  as  they  never  ran  before  and 
defeat  the  gigantic  conspiracy  of  British  and  Eastern 
gold  to  seize  our  fair  land  and  forclose  its  mortgages,  not 
only  on  the  farms  and  homes  and  plantations  of  the  West 
and  South,  but  also  on  the  labor  of  every  man  who  toils 
with  his  hands,  forever  and  forever  more." 


la--.:  :•':  ;••:',-'   ; ;  .SOUND  MONEY. 

As  the  speaker  concluded  a  storm  of  cheering  rent 
the  air.  Three-fourths  of  the  men  present  had  been 
carried  off  their  feet  and  lost  their  heads  in  listening  to 
the  glittering,  if  specious,  and  plausible,  if  fallacious, 
arguments  of  the  young  advocate  of  free  silver  coinage 
who  had  just  concluded  his  peroration  after  a  vigorous 
address.  In  the  course  of  his  speech  he  had  exhausted 
every  trick  of  oratory,  every  appeal  to  passion  and  to 
prejudice  which,  in  his  judgment,  would  manufacture 
sentiment  in  support  of  that  financial  policy  of  which  he 
was  the  well  paid  advocate. 

A  presidential  election  was  approaching.  The  bonanza 
silver  millionaires,  already  in  possession  of  almost  in- 
credible wealth,  but  greedy  for  more,  were  straining  every 
nerve  to  accomplish  either  one  of  two  things — to  commit 
one  of  the  two  great  parties  to  a  policy  of  free  coinage 
of  the  white  metal,  or  to  so  split  and  honeycomb  both  of 
them  with  free  coinage  sentiment  that  it  would  be  possible 
to  rear  a  new  party  of  their  own.  By  every  means  in 
their  power  they  were  bent  on  securing  the  inauguration 
of  a  policy  by  which  the  United  States  would  be  suddenly 
forced  to  a  silver  basis,  the  West  and  South  would  be 
enabled  to  repudiate  their  honest  debts  to  the  extent  of 
fifty  per  cent,  of  their  indebtedness;  while  they,  the 
bonanza  silver  millionaires  themselves,  would  reap  profits 
from  the  output  of  their  mines,  the  like  of  which  were 
never  seen  since  the  world  began. 

What  mattered  it  to  them  that  sooner  or  later  the 
crash  must  come  ?  What  mattered  it  to  them  that  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years,  at  best,  financial  chaos  must  en- 
gulph  the  entire  commercial  system  of  this  country, 
should  their  efforts  result  in  the  enactment  into  law  of 
the  reckless  revolution  they  were  advocating  ?  By  that 


SOUND  MONEY.  11 

time  they  would  be  prepared  for  flight  beyond  the  seas  to 
live  like  princes  on  the  product  of  their  base  conspiracy. 

As  the  speaker  resumed  his  chair  upon  the  platform, 
men  in  the  audience  waited  for  a  lull  in  the  handclapping 
and  cheering  to  ask  each  other  who  the  young  man  might 
be.  Gifted  with  the  art  of  putting  things  in  an  extraordi- 
nary degree,  of  magnetic  presence  and  pleasing  manner 
he  had  for  the  moment  convinced  many  men  against  their 
own  sober  judgment  that  they  did  not  know  what  a  dol- 
lar really  was.  He  had  convincingly  proved,  so  it  seemed, 
by  means  of  statistics  of  whose  genuineness  his  audience 
had  no  means  of  judging,  that  for  more  than  twenty 
years  Americans  had  been  guilty  of  the  unheard  of  folly 
of  putting  from  60  to  100  cents  worth  of  silver  into  a  dol- 
lar when  40  or  50  cent's  worth  would  have  answered  the 
purpose  just  as  well.  With  a  flippant  remark  and  a  few 
chalk  lines  drawn  upon  the  blackboard  he  had  demon- 
strated that  the  great  statesmen  and  financiers  of  the 
United  States,  England,  France,  Germany — in  fact,  of 
every  highly  civilized  country  both  in  the  old  world  and 
in  the  new,  were  either  knaves  or  fools — mostly  the  latter. 
He  showed,  to  his  own  satisfaction,  at  least,  and  for  the 
moment  to  that  of  the  vast  majority,  that  all  the  hidden 
mysteries  of  that  wonderful  outcome  of  human  necessities 
— commerce,  were  to  him  an  open  book;  that  the  knotty 
problems  which  the  wisest  and  most  learned  of  the  world's 
political  economists  had  grappled  with,  and  studied  and 
puzzled  over  for  years  simply  melted  away  before  the 
search-light  of  his  heaven-born  genius  for  finance. 

In  short,  he  announced  that  financial  panics  and  strin- 
gent times  were  but  the  manifestations  of  national  disease 
for  which  the  one  and  only  panacea  and  specific  was  the 
silver  cure  at  a  ratio  of  1 6  to  i,  no  matter  what  the  rela- 


12  SOUND  MONEY. 

tive  supply  of  the  two  metals  might  be  now  or  in  the 
future. 

"Who  is  he?"  said  a  brawny  blacksmith  to  his  neigh- 
bor, repeating  the  latter' s  query,  "why,  that's  Har- 
vey Coin — the  man  who  wrote  a  book  about  silver." 

"He's  a  smart  feller,"  commented  the  other.  "He 
gave  them  Britishers  fits,  didn't  he?" 

"That  he  did,"  assented  the  blacksmith,  whose  name 
was  Martin  Clench,  and  whose  deeply  lined  face  and 
clear,  blue  eyes  showed  him  to  be  a  man  of  more  than 
average  intelligence. 

"What  do  you  think  of  it?"  asked  Clench's  neighbor. 
"Strikes  me  the  gold  bugs  haven't  got  a  leg  to  stand  on. 
You  see,  it's  this  way:  Whatever  the  bankers  don't 
want  is  a  mighty  good  thing  for  the  poor  people  to  have, 
and  the  bankers  don't  want  free  silver." 

"I'm  not  so  sure  about  that,"  replied  the  blacksmith. 
"Bankers  are  in  business  to  make  money  out  of  their 
banks  the  same  as  blacksmiths  and  all  other  tradesmen 
are,  big  and  little,  out  of  their  shops.  If  people  ain't 
doing  well  they  don't  need  to  use  money  in  their  business 
so  they  don't  need  to  borrow  from  the  banks.  If  they 
are  doing  well  they  have  money  to  deposit  or  need  more 
capital  to  increase  and  extend  their  business  and  they  go 
to  the  banks.  I'm  not  well  enough  posted  to  be  on  either 
one  side  or  the  other,  but  it  strikes  me  that  whatever 
would  make  the  best  times  would  be  what  the  bankers 
would  want.  Banks  don't  smash  when  times  are  good — 
not  as  a  rule." 

This  conversation  was  broken  in  upon  by  a  man  be- 
hind them,  who  also  wanted  to  know  the  name  of  the 
speaker.  He  was  given  the  information,  and  at  once  asked 
the  question : 


SOUND  MONEY,  13 

"What  trade  does  he  represent? " 

"I  don't  know  that  he  represents  any  trade,"  replied 
Clench. 

"Then  what  is  he  doing  here?  This  is  a  meeting  of 
the  Federated  Trades  Unions.  I  guess  you  must  be 
mistaken. ' ' 

"A  jawsmith  is  his  main  holt,"  chipped  in  another 
man,  who  had  taken  no  part  in  the  demonstration  which 
marked  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Coin's  speech.  This  man 
was  James  Hobbs,  a  carpenter,  noted  among  his  fellows 
as  a  leader  in  labor's  cause  and  an  active  member  of  the 
republican  party.  He  was  not  a  speaker  himself,  but  a 
worker.  Perhaps  he  may  have  been  prompted  somewhat 
by  a  feeling  of  envy,  but  certain  it  is  that  he  felt  and  fre- 
quently expressed  considerable  contempt  for  those  who  in 
political  or  labor  circles  owed  their  prominence  entirely 
to  what  he  called  "the  gift  of  gab." 

"Yes,"  he  continued,  "this  here  is  some  more  of 
Burke' s  hunker-sliding.  He's  a  free  silver  democrat  him- 
self and  he  lets  this  poll  parrot  talk  to  us  to  try  to  stam- 
pede us  into  the  free  silver  crowd.  How  was  it  worked  ? 
I  only  got  here  late  because  I'm  working  on  a  job  away 
out  at  South  Chicago." 

"Rafferty,  of  the  Bricklayers,  moved  that  as  Mr. 
Coin  was  present  that  he  should  be  allowed  to  talk,  and 
the  crowd  yelled  for  him,"  replied  Clench. 

"Rafferty — I  might  have  known  it !"  ejaculated  Mr. 
Hobbs.  "  He's  another  poll  parrot.  You  wait  and  see. 
I  told  the  boys  what  we'd  get  when  they  elected  Burke 
president.  He'll  pull  politics  into  the  Federation  till  the 
organization  busts  up  in  a  row — that's  what." 

During  this  conversation  there  had  been  considerable 
confabbing  on  the  platform  between  Mr,  Coin,  President 


14  SO  UND  MONE  Y. 

Burke,  Michael  Rafferty  and  others.  But  now  the  sharp 
tap  of  the  president's  gavel  demanded  order  and  Mr. 
Rafferty  was  recognized.  In~a  flowery  speech,  which  was 
by  no  means  devoid  of  real  Irish  eloquence,  he  rapidly 
sketched  the  importance  to  laboring  men  of  having  a  cor- 
rect understanding  of  the  issue  which  he  said  had  been  so 
ably  represented  to  them  that  evening.  L,abor,  he  said, 
had  remained  out  of  partisan  politics  to  its  own  hurt  or 
had  attempted  the  impossible  of  forming  an  independent 
party,  equally  to  its  own  hurt.  This  financial  question, 
he  thought,  was  not  one  of  partisan  politics — it  was  a 
question  which  would  split  both  the  old  parties  and  oblit- 
erate party  lines  and  ties  in  a  manner  entirely  new  to 
political  struggles  in  this  country,  except  in  one  instance 
— the  fight  between  the  pro -and  anti-slavery  adherents. 
Congress,  he  said,  frequently  resorted  to  the  appointment 
of  commissions  for  the  investigation  of  special  subjects. 
The  Federated  Trades  Unions  amounted  to  a  congress  of 
labor,  and  he  believed  they  might  well  take  a  leaf  from 
the  Congressional  Record,  so  to  speak,  and  for  their  own 
benefit  appoint  a  commission  of  three  members  to  investi- 
gate the  subject  of  silver  vs.  gold  and  report  back  to  this 
body  within  three  weeks.  He  made  a  motion  to  that 
effect. 

In  an  instant  a  dozen  men  were  on  their  feet  with 
arms  outstretched  toward  President  Burke  and  yelling 
"Mr.  Chairman"  with  all  the  lung  power  with  which 
nature  had  endowed  them.  A  roar  of  "No!  no!  "  rolled 
up  to  the  roof  and  reverberated  through  the  hall,  and  this 
was  succeeded  by  cheers  from  that  contingent  to  which 
Clench,  the  blacksmith,  alluded  as  "the  silverites, ' '  and 
Hobbs  called  the  "Colorado  push."  Through  all  the 
din  President  Burke  kept  working, away  with  his  gavel 


SOUND  MONEY.  15 

like  a  hired  man,  but  pandemonium  had  broken  loose 
and  there  was  nothing  for  if  but  to  wait  until  the  excite- 
ment had  worn  itself  out.  That  moment  at  length 
arrived,  and  a  delegate  from  the  Typographical  union, 
Buckheimer  by  name,  was  recognized.  He  moved,  in 
amendment,  that  a  commission  of  three  be  appointed,  to 
be  selected  by  the  chair,  and  that  there  should  be  one 
member  an  avowed  silver  man,  the  second  an  equally 
avowed  gold  man,  and  the  third,  to  preside,  whose  neu- 
trality on  the  subject  was  known  and  who  would  be 
accepted  by  the  meeting.  In  the  course  of  his  remarks 
he  said: 

"If  there  is  anything  on  earth  that  interests  the 
workingman  vitally  it  is  this  question  of  currency. 
When  he  goes  home  to  his  wife  after  a  hard  week's  toil 
he  wants  to  take  in  his  hand  the  money  for  which  he  has 
sold  the  only  thing  he  has  to  sell — his  labor.  And  when 
he  takes  that  money  to  his  missus  he  wants  to  be  sure 
that  it  will  be  accepted  by  the  man  at  the  corner  grocery 
and  meat  market  at  100  cents  on  the  dollar.  He  doesn't 
want  money  that  will  be  worth  105  cents  to-morrow  or 
the  day  after  and  75  cents  next  week." 

Here  Hobbs  interrupted  by  shouting:  "And  he 
doesn't  want  money  that  will  give  him  $25  a  week  wages 
and  make  him  pay  $50  a  month  rent  and  send  bread 
up  to  ten  cents  a  loaf."  This  sentiment  was  loudly 
cheered. 

"On  the  other  hand,"  continued  the  delegate,  "the 
workingman 's  interest  is  to  have  sufficient  currency  in 
the  country  to  let  business  go  on.  If  there  isn't  enough 
now  we  must  find  out  how  to  get  more  and  vote  for  the 
men  who  will  give  it  to  us. " 

After  considerable  discussion  the  motion  of  Delegate 


16  SOUND  MONEY. 

Rafferty  was  put  and  carried  as  amended,  and  now  came 
the  appointment  of  "labor's  commission  on  coinage," 
as  Delegate  Rafferty  christened  it.  President  Burke 
named  Rafferty  to  represent  the  silver  element,  and  called 
for  suggestions  as  to  the  other  two  members.  Many 
names  were  submitted,  but  none  seemed  to  arouse  any 
enthusiasm  until  somebody  shouted  "Try  Hobbs  for 
gold. ' '  This  suggestion  was  received  with  applause  by 
the  delegates  who  subscribed  to  the  same  political  creed 
as  did  Mr.  Hobbs,  and  the  evident  will  of  that  section  of 
the  meeting  was  quickly  confirmed  by  President  Burke. 
But  to  find  a  man  whose  neutrality  was  sufficiently  pro- 
nounced, if  the  paradox  may  be  permitted,  was  a  matter 
of  much  more  difficulty.  Delegate  Buckheimer,  the 
mover  of  the  amendment,  was  proposed,  but  because  he 
had  sufficient  independence  to  act  first  with  one  party 
and  then  with  another,  voting  conscientiously  on  the 
issues  presented  without  the  slightest  regard  for  what  are 
erroneously  termed  "political  principles,"  but  which,  in 
this  connection,  are  properly  denominated  "partisan 
ties,"  he  had  got  himself  disliked  on  both  sides  of  the 
political  fence.  Buckheimer  was  one  of  the  most  consci- 
encious  of  men,  of  considerable  reading  and  naturally  an 
independent  thinker.  Moreover,  he  had  the  courage  of 
his  convictions,  so  when  he  voted  with  the  Republicans 
on  some  issue  he  also  worked  with  them  for  the  success 
of  what  he  believed  to  be  right,  and  followed  a  similar 
course  when  he  believed  it  to  be  a  patriotic  duty  to  sup- 
port the  other  political  party.  Men  in  his  own  and  other 
labor  organizations,  less  high-minded  than  himself,  saw 
in  this  political  independence  only  the  evidences  of  cor- 
ruption. This  thought  found  a  voice  when  Buckheimer' s 
name  was  proposed.  A  delegate  at  the  back  of  the  hall 


SOUND  MONEY.  17 

shouted  "He'll  turn  his  coat  for  the  stuff!"  and  the 
cruel  slander  was  greeted  with  a  roar  of  laughter.  Buck- 
heimer  was  not  chosen. 

Meantime  Delegate  Clench  had  succeeded  in  getting 
into  an  argument  with  the  man  in  front  of  him,  and  in 
his  excitement  had  risen  from  his  seat.  President  Burke, 
happening  to  look  in  Clench's  direction,  probably  thought 
that  the  big  blacksmith  had  a  suggestion  to  make  to  the 
chair,  and  recognized  him.  "Delegate  Clench  of  the 
Blacksmith's  Union,"  he  announced. 

The  business  before  the  meeting  being  the  nomina- 
tion of  the  third  member  of  the  commission,  a  number 
of  delegates  in  different  parts  of  the  hall,  on  hearing 
Clench's  name,  thought  he  had  been  chosen  for  the  posi- 
tion. Clench's  sturdy  honesty  and  hard-headed  common 
sense  were  well  known  and  appreciated,  so  no  sooner  was 
his  name  announced  than  the  delegates  alluded  to  com- 
menced to  applaud.  In  a  moment  the  applause  was 
general,  and  Clench,  bewildered  a  little,  but  still  on  his 
feet,  uttered  the  single  interrogatory: 

"Sir?" 

"I  appoint  you  as  the  third  member  and  chairman  of 
the  commission,"  said  President  Burke,  who  was  ever 
eager  to  do  what  seemed  to  be  the  popular  thing.  In 
this  instance  he  hit  the  nail  squarely  on  the  head,  for  the 
meeting  endorsed  the  nomination  with  generous  applause 
and  called  on  the  nominee  for  a  speech. 

"I'm  not  much  of  a  speechmaker, "  began  the  black- 
smith, "and  yet  I  ain't  a  dummy.  If  I  had  more  edu- 
cation I'd  talk  better.  As  I  naven't  got  it  I  content 
myself  with  thinking  things  out  and  finding  out  the 
truth  as  far  as  a  plain  man  can.  Now,  on  this  question 
I'm  no  good — I  ain't  enough  posted  to  know  which  side 


18  SOUND  MONEY. 

has  the  best  of  it,  so  you'd  better  appoint  somebody  more 
qualified  for  the  job,  Mr.  Chairman." 

"You  are  just  the  man  we  want,"  declared  Harvey 
Coin. 

"What  have  you  got  to  do  with  it  ?  "  shouted  Hobbs. 
"You  keep  still.  You've  had  all  the  say  you're  going 
to  have  this  evening,"  and  with  that  he  sat  down  again, 
very  red  in  the  face  from  the  effort  of  making  even  so 
brief  a  speech  as  this. 

"I'll  convert  you  to  silver,"  replied  Coin  flippantly. 
"The  first  thing  you  know  you'll  be  carrying  the 
banner  of  the  new  party  that  is  destined  to  redeem  this 
country  from  the  clutches  of  the  creditor  class. ' '  This 
sally  was  applauded,  but  as  soon  as  he  could  be  heard 
Delegate  Hobbs  retorted  by  saying:  "  I  always  pay  my 
honest  debts,  and  when  a  country  gets  to  have  less  honor 
than  a  poor  carpenter  it's  in  a  mighty  bad  way,  friend 
Coin."  This  got  the  laugh  on  Mr.  Coin,  who  since  the 
success  of  all  he  had  worked  for — the  appointment  of  a 
committee  of  workingmen  to  investigate — had  been  grow- 
ing more  and  more  bumptious  every  minute. 

After  the  meeting  had  adjourned  the  newly  appointed 
commission  assembled  on  the  platform  which  Harvey 
Coin  had  not  yet  deserted.  Before  anything  was  done, 
however,  Mr.  Coin  drew  Commissioner  Rafferty  aside,  and 
a  whispered  conversation  took  place.  From  the  gestures 
of  the  two  men,  subdued  though  they  were,  and  the 
frequently  nodded  assent  of  Rafferty,  it  was  evident  to  a 
careful  observer  that  Coin  was  instructing  his  disciple  in 
the  course  which  he  should  pursue. 

At  length  Chairman  Clench  called  the  commission  to 
order  and  asked  for  suggestions  as  to  ways  and  means  of 
conducting  the  investigation.  Though  not  invited, 


SOUND  MONEY.  19 

Harvey  Coin,  with  consummate  assurance,  drew  up  a 
chair  at  Commissioner  RafFerty's  elbow  and  prepared  to 
offer  suggestions  whenever  an  opportunity  presented  it- 
self. 

Commissioner  Hobbs  eyed  the  interloper  askance,  and 
after  several  more  or  less  apologetic  coughs  said  :  "Mr. 
Chairman :  I  notice  that  there  is  an  outsider  present. 
This,  I  take  it,  is  an  executive  session,  and  I  think  no 
stranger  should  be  here. ' ' 

"Oh!"  exclaimed  the  cheap  money  man,  before 
Chairman  Clench  had  time  to  reply,  "If  my  presence 
here  is  disagreeable  to  the  gentleman  I  will  withdraw.  I 
had  no  idea  that  this  investigation  was  to  be  a  hole  and 
corner  affair  in  the  interests  of  Wall  street  and  the  British 
bondholders."  As  he  said  "British  bondholders"  he 
glanced  keenly  at  Rafferty  and  was  gratified  to  see  a 
sudden  flush  of  color  in  his  cheek,  Rafferty  was  a  patri- 
otic son  of  the  Emerald  Isle,  and  an  inveterate  enemy  of 
everything  which  typified  the  strength  and  power  of  the 
British  lion. 

'  'This  will  be  no  hole  and  corner  investigation  so  far 
as  I  am  concerned,"  he  declared.  "We  are  appointed 
for  the  purpose  of  revealing,  not  concealing,  facts ;  and 
so  long  as  the  gentleman  does  not  interfere  with  the  busi- 
ness of  this  commission,  I  can't  see  that  anybody  is  hurt 
by  his  presence. ' ' 

"He  may  not  interfere  with  the  commission,"  re- 
torted Hobbs,  "but  he  will  interfere  with  you.  He  is 
sitting  there  to  prompt  you. ' ' 

"I  don't  need  any  prompting,  Mr.  Hobbs.  If  you 
attend  to  your  duties  as  well  as  I  shall  to  mine  you  won't 
have  any  cause  to  blame  yourself  when  all  is  over," 
Rafferty  replied,  "Even  if  Mr,  Coin  did  suggest  some- 


20  SO  UND  MONE  Y. 

thing  to  me,  if  I  am  willing  to  accept  his  suggestion  and 
father  it,  how  can  that  hinder  the  investigation  we  have 
undertaken  ?  It  will  help  instead  of  hindering.  I  leave 
it  to  the  Chair. ' ' 

"I  don't  see  that  Mr.  Coin  can  do  any  harm,"  was 
the  big  blacksmith's  decision,  "  but  if  Mr.  Hobb's  don't 
want  him,  why,  for  the  sake  of  harmony,  we'd  better  not 
ask  him  to  stay.  Anyway,  I  was  going  to  propose  that 
we'd  all  better  go  home  and  think  this  over.  Then  let 
us  meet  here  at  10  o'clock  tomorrow  and  lay  out  our 
work." 

This  was  agreed  to  and  the  first  meeting  of  Labor's 
Commission  on  Coinage,  held  Tuesday,  April  23,  1895, 
adjourned. 


SOUND  MONEY.  21 


CHAPTER  I. 

FIRST  DAY'S   PROCEEDINGS  OF   LABOR'S   COMMISSION  ON 
COINAGE. 

As  the  three  commissioners  were  about  to  separate  for 
the  night,  Harvey  Coin  drew  President  Burke  of  the  Fed- 
eration aside  and  held  a  whispered  conversation  with  him, 
which  lasted  until  the  three  commissioners  had  reached 
the  door,  still  chatting  over  their  plans  for  effectively  pur- 
suing the  investigation.  Between  Commissioners  Hobbs 
and  Rafferty  there  was  already  a  feeling  of  deep-rooted 
hostility,  and  Chairman  Clench  foresaw  that  in  all  proba- 
bility he  would  have  his  hands  full  in  keeping  the  peace 
between  them. 

This  showed  itself  when  they  reached  the  foot  of  the 
stairs  and  stood  on  LaSalle  street,  the  meeting  having 
taken  place  in  the  Industrial  World  building.  Rafferty 
hung  back  instead  of  walking  to  the  corner  with  his 
companions,  as  he  had  been  accustomed  to  do. 

"Ah,"  said  Hobbs,  "waiting  to  get  your  instructions 
from  your  leader,  are  you?  I  suppose,  though,  we 
couldn't  expect  much  else  than  that  Cheap  Money  Coin 
would  succeed  in  getting  a  proxy  on  the  commission." 

Rafferty  made  an  angry  retort,  as  might  be  expected. 
"You  don't  need  to  talk,  Brother  Hobbs,"  he  said  bit- 
terly, "you  and  the  whole  breed  of  Wall  street  pups  wear 
the  British  collar  wherever  you  go. ' ' 

"Come,  come,"  interposed  Clench  as  he  pushed  his 
way  in  between  them  by  main  force.  "What's  the  sense 


22  SOUND  MONEY. 

of  you  two  chaps  calling  names  ?  Drop  it  now.  You're 
on  opposite  sides  of  the  question,  but  that's  no  reason 
why  you  should  scratch  each  other's  eyes  out,  either  in 
private  or  public.  It's  only  natural  that  Rafferty  wants 
to  consult  with  his  friends,  and  that  you,  Hobbs,  will  con- 
sult with  yours.  As  for  me,  I'm  open  to  conviction  either 
way,  and  the  boys  put  me  into  the  investigation  to  see 
fair  and  bring  out  the  facts  as  clearly  as  I  can  for  their 
benefit.  The  time  has  gone  by  when  politicians  like  you 
fellows  can  lead  your  mates  like  a  flock  of  sheep  on  an 
election  cry,  and  you'll  both  have  all  you  can  do  to  get 
your  side  of  the  case  put  as  strongly  as  you  can  without 
wasting  time  in  quarreling  like  school  boys. ' ' 

At  this  moment  Harvey  Coin  emerged  from  the  build- 
ing and,  slipping  his  arm  through  Rafferty's,  the  two 
bade  the  others  good  night  and  left  President  Burke  with 
Clench  and  Hobbs  to  talk  over  the  extraordinary  action 
of  the  meeting.  This  was  the  first  time  on  record  that 
labor  had  tried  any  such  experiment,  and  all  were  anxious 
to  see  the  outcome. 

Meantime,  Rafferty  and  Coin  had  crossed  over  on 
Randolph  to  Clark  street,  and  were  engaged  in  an  earnest 
conversation. 

"We  have  succeeded  wonderfully,"  said  Coin,  "in 
everything  we  have  undertaken.  The  entire  West  and 
South  are  aroused,  and  we  shall  at  last  be  able  to  play  a 
pretty  solid  South  and  West  against  the  Eastern  money 
bags.  I  don't  think  anything  can  prevent  Hinrichson's 
scheme  of  committing  the  Illinois  Democracy  to  free 
silver,  from  carrying  through;  and  with  Illinois  Demo- 
crats in  line  the  Populists  are  bound  to  ally  themselves 
with  the  Democracy.  Then,  the  Inter  Ocean  is  making 
hundreds  of  converts  in  the  Republican  ranks  daily,  and, 


SOUND  MONEY.  23 

with  protection  out  of  the  way  as  an  issue,  we'll  simply 
carry  the  farmers  and  labor  classes — every  man  who  is 
poor  or  in  debt,  into  our  movement  in  a  body,  no  matter 
what  their  former  party  affiliations  may  have  been. ' ' 

"Perhaps,"  replied  Rafferty  tersely. 

"What  do  you  mean  by  that?  Are  you  losing  faith 
already  ?  ' '  inquired  Coin  with  a  searching  glance  at  his 
companion. 

"No,"  replied  Rafferty,  "but  everything  depends  on 
the  success  of  this  bold  move.  Clench  is  the  worst  and 
at  the  same  time  the  best  man  they  could  have  chosen  for 
chairman.  He  represents  the  great  mass  of  voters  who 
go  to  the  ballot  box  and  vote  their  conscience.  That  is 
the  class  which  came  into  existence  a  few  years  ago  when 
the  paster  and  the  vest  pocket  vote  showed  the  politicians 
that  their  reign  was  coming  to  a  close,  and  that  they  might 
as  well  drop  their  opposition  to  the  Australian  ballot  law 
and  other  measures  devised  by  advanced  reformers  for  the 
very  purpose  of  exterminating  the  professional  politician 
at  no  distant  day.  It  is  not  the  hide-bound  party  men,  but 
men  like  Clench  who  carry  elections  now-a-days.  The 
wisest  of  the  'old  heads'  are  all  at  sea  when  it  conies  to  fore- 
telling what  the  people  will  do  at  the  polls.  Look  at  the 
civil  service  law.  Why,  at  4  o'clock  on  election  day 
every  politician  in  town  and  every  newspaper,  too,  for 
that  matter,  thought  it  had  been  badly  beaten.  What 
were  the  facts  ?  The  Martin  Clenchs  and  men  of  his  stamp 
had  voted  solidly  for  the  law  and  it  went  through  by  a 
four-fifths  majority.  If  we  don't  pull  Clench  over  we'll 
be  in  the  hole." 

'  'That  is  all  very  true, ' '  assented  Coin .  ' ' But  don' t  for- 
get that  in  hard  times  every  man  is  with  your  fellow-coun- 
try man  'agin  the  government, '  and  the  present  administra- 


24  SOUND  MONEY. 

tion  is  committed  to  gold.  If  another  party  offers  a  plan 
that  looks  as  if  it  would  make  money  plentiful  and  provide 
lots  of  employment,  the  great  mass  of  the  voters  is  likely 
to  give  it  a  trial  on  general  principles.  But  where  a  party 
can  demonstrate  that  its  plan  surely  and  certainly  will  cut 
off  and  blot  out  one-half  of  every  man's  debts,  these  same 
fellows  who  vote  their  conscience  will  just  tumble  over 
each  other  to  get  into  the  wagon.  Every  man  has  his 
price  and  most  of  them  are  cheap. ' ' 

This  brought  the  speakers  to  the  Boston  oyster  house, 
and  they  went  down  stairs  to  eat  a  lunch  and  lay  out  their 
plans  for  conducting  the  investigation  in  the  interests  of 
free  silver.  After  they  had  got  comfortably  fixed  Rafferty 
continued  the  subject,  in  which  both  were  absorbed  by  say- 
ing :  "How  do  you  propose  to  run  this  investigation?  " 

"Why,  you  must  call  the  strongest  men  you  can  get 
to  present  our  arguments  for  all  there  is  in  them.  Send 
out  letters — here,  I'll  give  you  a  list  that  I  have  made  out. 
Hobbs  will  be  sure  to  do  the  same  with  his  side  of  the 
case  and  I'll  always  will  be  on  hand  to  chip  in  with  a 
clincher  or  a  knock-out  blow  whenever  I  see  that  it  is 
needed." 

"This  is  a  pretty  good  list,"  said  Rafferty,  glancing  at 
the  type- written  memorandum,  "  but  these  men  won't  all 
be  here  in  town. ' ' 

"Won't  they?"  replied  Coin.  "You  bet  they  will! 
The  men  who  pull  the  wires  from  Denver  have  arranged 
that  all  these  people  will  be  in  Chicago  during  the  next 
fortnight  or  so — merely  by  accident  of  course.  The  gold 
bugs,  never  suspecting  any  such  move  on  our  part,  will 
be  caught  napping,  and  they'll  have  to  depend  entirely  on 
local  talent.  That  is  just  where  I  live — why,  there  isn't 
a  gold  bug  in  Chicago  that  I  can't  play  with.  The  fact 


SOUND  MONEY.  25 

is  that  they  haven't  paid  any  attention  to  the  question  in 
detail.  They  can  argue  off  hand,  of  course,  on  the  gen- 
eral proposition,  but  they  aren't  fortified  with  figures,  and 
the  result  is  that  when  I  spring  my  statistics  on  them 
they  look  foolish.  I  shouldn't  wonder  if  they  feel  just  as 
foolish  as  they  look. ' '  With  this  superb  piece  of  egotism 
Harvey  Coin  threw  himself  back  in  his  chair  and  puffed 
up  his  chest  in  a  manner  which  reminded  one  of  the  fool- 
ish frog  in  CBsop's  fable. 

"Are  those  statistics  as  dead  sure  as  you  claim?"  asked 
Rafferty,  after  a  pause. 

"Oh,  they're  close  enough,"  was  the  reply.  "None 
of  the  gold  bugs  around  this  neighborhood  have  been  able 
to  disprove  them,  though  I've  been  sending  them  out 
broadcast  for  months.  Don't  you  worry  about  my  figures 
for  that's  where  I  shine.  Now,  I'll  tell  you  what  you 
must  do.  Insist  that  the  sessions  of  your  commission 
shall  be  informal  and  that  you  will  hear  the  evidence  of 
whatever  witnesses  may  be  in  attendance  on  any  given 
point  under  discussion.  For  instance — suppose  that  I 
take  the  stand  to-morrow  as  soon  as  you  have  agreed  on 
your  method.  Well,  I  give  evidence  on  certain  points 
and  am  careful  not  to  cover  too  much  ground,  savey? 
Then,  if  the  sessions  are  informal,  it  leaves  the  way  open 
for  me  to  jump  in  and  contradict  any  gold  bug  witness  on 
any  point  and  produce  my  statistics  right  then  and  there. 
I  want  to  be  right  in  the  front  of  this  investigation  all 
through  because  it  means  a  big  thing  for  me,  and  you  too, 
if  we  can  get  the  solid  indorsement  of  the  trades  unions. ' ' 

"I  see  that  plainly  enough,"  replied  Rafferty.  "It 
ought  to  be  a  good  thing  for  me  and  Burke  as  well. 
There's  a  smart  politician  for  you.  Did  you  notice  how 
smoothly  he  got  you  before  them  to-night?' ' 


26  SOUND  MONEY. 

"Why  wouldn't  he?  I'm  a  famous  man,  this  minute; 
and,  besides,  I  wrote  out  his  little  speech  and  gave  him 
all  the  points.  Well,  I  must  be  off.  I've  got  a  call  to 
make  at  the  Auditorium  before  I  go  home,"  saying  which 
he  picked  up  the  two  checks  and  went  to  the  desk  where 
he  paid  the  bill  and  procured  some  cigars,  a  handfull  of 
which  he  forced  Rafferty  to  take. 

"Ten  o'clock,"  he  said. 

"Ten  o'clock,"  repeated  Rafferty.  "Don't  get  there 
later, ' '  and  with  this  they  separated,  Rafferty  going  to  his 
home  in  the  iglfa  ward  and  Coin  to  the  Auditorium  hotel. 

A  few  minutes  later  the  latter  gentleman  found  him- 
self in  a  luxurious  apartment  on  the  parlor  floor  of  this 
modern  palace  closeted  with  three  western  men  either  one 
of  whom  could  then  and  there  have  given  his  check  for 
the  Auditorium  block  and  the  land  it  stands  upon.  One 
of  the  trio  wore  a  diamond  in  his  shirt  bosom  as  large  as 
a  hazelnut.  The  other  two  exhibited  better  taste. 

'  'Well,  did  you  get  them? ' '  inquired  the  man  with 
the  kohinoor. 

"I  did,"  replied  Coin.  "I  always  get  what  I  go 
out  for." 

"What  did  they  cost  ?"  inquired  the  bonanza  silver 
multi-millionaire,  watching  the  play  of  light  from  his 
diamond  as  it  was  reflected  in  a  magnificent  French  plate 
mirror. 

"The  expense  won't  trouble  you,"  returned  Coin 
with  a  smile,  "  for  my  total  outlay  was  exactly  $2.25." 

"What?"  almost  shouted  the  three  men  of  millions 
in  chorus. 

"That's  every  cent  it  cost  and  the  whole  thing  went 
through  as  if  it  had  been  greased.  What's  more,  unless 
the  commission  submits  the  report  I  write  it  won't  cost 


MONEY.  27 

anything  further — unless,  perhaps,  hall  rent  or  some 
trifle  of  that  sort.  I  propose  to  circus  this  discussion  and 
work  up  such  a  crowded  attendance  that  we'll  have  to 
rent  the  Auditorium  or  Battery  D  to  accommodate  the 
audience. ' ' 

"That's  a  great  idea.  Well,  you  know  what  it'll 
be  worth  to  you  if  the  report  of  this  labor  committee,  or 
whatever  you  call  it,  indorses  free  coinage  at  16  to  i," 
said  the  man  with  the  big  diamond,  rubbing  his  hands  in 
glee  at  that  delightful  prospect. 

"I  can  read  typewriting,"  said  Mr.  Harvey  Coin, 
''and  know  a  good  contract  when  I  see  it,  even  if  I'm  not 
a  lawyer. ' ' 

"If  we  get  free  coinage, "  began  a  wiry  little  man — 

"If  we  get  free  coinage,"  broke  in  the  bejeweled  one, 
"I  wouldn't  take  $30,000,000  for  what  I  own,  provided 
we  can  stave  off  a  panic  for  six  or  seven  years. ' ' 

After  a  brief  conversation  during  which  the  four  dis- 
cussed Coin's  programme  for  the  coming  investigation,  the 
worthies  separated  for  the  night  to  dream  of  the  money 
they  would  make  when  free  coinage  would  cut  down  all 
debts  one-half,  raise  all  prices  one-half,  and  thus  make 
the  wages  of  the  laboring  men  and  the  vast  army  of  wage- 
workers  whose  votes  they  had  conspired  to  capture  worth 
only  one-half  in  purchasing  power  of  what  they  were  that 
night.  As  for  themselves,  each  saw  himself  in  his 
dreams  ten  times  richer  than  Croesus  and  hobnobbing 
with  the  aristocracy  of  Europe,  particularly  of  England — 
the  very  people  whom  their  paid  advocate,  Harvey  Coin, 
was  just  at  that  time  denouncing  as  blood-suckers,  vam- 
pires, moneybags  and  the  dear  above  only  knows  what  else, 
principally  with  a  view  to  ' '  getting  solid  ' '  with  the  Irish 
vote  through  the  natural  prejudice  of  Irishmen  against 


28  SOUND  MONEY. 

the  class  mainly  responsible  for  the  pitiable  condition  of 
the  land  they  love  so  well. 

*  5JC  *  *  * 

Promptly  at  ten  o'clock  on  Wednesday  morning 
Chairman  Clench  called  the  commission  to  order  in  the 
little  Hall  in  the  Industrial  World  building  on  L,aSalle 
street.  The  able  daily  organ  of  repudiation  in  Chicago,  the 
Silver  Howl,  had  contained  a  two-column  account  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  night  before,  including  the  news  of  the 
appointment  of  the  commission  and  Harvey  Coin's 
speech.  Those  who  had  been  present  noticed  that 
although  they  thought  they  had  paid  particularly  close 
attention  to  the  speech,  they  had  missed  a  good  deal  of 
brilliant  repartee  reported  in  the  paper.  On  numerous 
occasions  had  Mr.  Coin  been  interrupted  by  evil  disposed 
emissaries  of  the  gold  bug  party,  according  to  this 
veracious  report,  who  had  plied  him  with  questions, 
apparently  unanswerable,  and  propositions  that  would 
have  given  Adam  Smith,  Bastiat  or  any  of  those  old 
duffers  a  headache.  But  did  they  succeed  in  bothering 
young  Mr.  Coin  ?  Oh,  dear  no  !  It  is  true  they  covered 
almost  every  phase  of  commerce  and  finance,  but  what  of 
that  ?  Harvey  Coin  had  literally  whole  cords  of  statistics 
at  his  tongue's  end  with  which  he  first  confounded  his 
questioners  and  then  turned  the  laugh  on  them  with  a 
witty  remark  which,  to  quote  the  erstwhile  ''hyphenated 
contemporary,"  "sent  the  packed  audience  into  convul- 
sions of  laughter. ' '  These  happy  retorts  had  doubtless 
appeared  in  the  typewritten  report  of  the  speech  supplied 
by  its  author  to  the  paper  several  hours  in  advance  of  its 
delivery. 

The  effect  of  the  publication  of  this  report,  however, 
had  produced  a  result  already.  The  little  hall  was  packed 


SOUND  MONEY.  29 

and  not  alone  by  silverites,  or  "  the  Colorado  push,"  as 
Commissioner  Hobbs  called  them,  nor  by  workingmen. 
There  were  several  well  known  gold  standard  men  in  the 
throng,  men  who  had  for  months  been  watching  the  rapid 
progress  of  free  silver's  aggressive  campaign  and,  in  view 
of  recent  developments,  had  suddenly  become  anxious 
about  what  was  likely  to  happen. 

Nor  had  Commissioner  Hobbs  been  altogether  idle. 
After  Coin  and  Rafierty  had  left  them,  President  Burke, 
Clench  and  Hobbs  had  discussed  the  investigation,  and 
Hobbs  had  been  drawn  into  an  argument  of  the  issue  with 
Burke,  himself  a  rabid  free  coinage  Democrat.  In  the 
course  of  the  discussion  Burke  lost  his  temper  and  let  out 
a  good  deal  more  of  the  plans  of  Coin  and  himself  than 
he  had  intended.  The  result  of  this  was  that  as  soon  as 
Clench  and  Hobbs  parted  with  him  the  latter  said  : 

"I'll  bet  my  life  they've  got  their  witnesses  ready  and 
their  evidence  cut  and  dried,  and  they'll  begin  to  spring  it 
on  us  tomorrow  on  the  excuse  that  there  isn't  any  time  to 
lose." 

"The  excuse  is  good,  too,"  replied  Clench,  "there 
isn't  much  time  to  lose  if  we're  to  report  in  three  weeks. 
Besides,  you'll  have  lots  of  opportunity  to  answer." 

"That  isn't  the  point,"  urged  Hobbs.  "There's 
only  one  fair  way  to  do  this  and  that  is  to  shake  the  life 
out  of  each  argument  in  favor  of  one  side  or  the  other  as 
it  comes  up.  If  we  proceed  like  a  law  court,  have  one 
side  get  in  all  of  its  evidence  and  then  the  other,  and 
then  more  on  the  first  side  and  more  again  on  the  second, 
the  thing' 11  drag  on  till  winter  through  waiting  for 
witnesses  and  all  that. ' '  To  this  proposition  Clench  as- 
sented. He  would  much  prefer  a  running  debate  and  so 
get  a  chance  to  make  up  his  mind  as  the  discussion  went 


30  SOUND  MONEY. 

along.  Thus,  unconsciously,  when  the  meeting  began 
each  side  was  prepared  to  spar  for  this  very  opening,  when, 
to  the  surprise  of  Coin  and  Raiferty,  Chairman  Clench 
proposed  that  the  investigation  should  be  conducted  on 
what  he  termed  the  '  'go  as  you  please' '  plan.  Both  sides, 
of  course,  consented,  and  Commissioner  Hobbs,  who  had  a 
little  surprise  in  store  for  Mr.  Coin,  looked  anxiously 
through  the  audience  and  only  appeared  relieved  when  he 
saw  a  tall,  soldierly  looking  man,  accompanied  by  a  clerk, 
elbowing  his  way  through  the  crowd.  Mr.  Hobbs  soon 
procured  a  table  and  chairs,  which  were  placed  in  front  of 
the  platform  for  the  convenience  of  witnesses  in  waiting 
and  the  stenographers,  of  whom  each  side  had  secured 
one,  and  an  agreement  was  entered  into  that  these  re- 
porters should  relieve  each  other. 

In  a  halting  speech,  during  the  delivery  of  which  he 
looked  supremely  uncomfortable,  the  big  blacksmith 
declared  the  purpose  of  the  commission,  the  manner  of  its 
appointment  and  the  plan  on  which  it  would  proceed. 
He  then  asked  if  there  was  any  person  present  who 
desired  to  testify  on  either  side,  and  almost  before  the 
words  were  out  of  his  mouth  Harvey  Coin  bobbed  up 
like  a  jack-in-the-box  and  announced  his  willingness  to 
tell  the  commission  all  about  the  silver  question,  from 
beginning  to  end. 

Hobbs  looked  grim,  but  made  no  objection;  so,  with 
an  easy,  confident  air,  the  jaunty  little  walking  encyclo- 
pedia of  universal  silver  information  and  dictionary  of 
more  or  less  reliable  statistics  combined,  struck  an  atti- 
tude at  the  right  of  the  witnesses'  table  and  asked  if  he 
would  be  allowed  to  speak  from  the  platform,  as  he 
"always  felt  more  at  home  when  facing  a  crowd,"  The 
request  was  granted,  and,  "springing  lightly  to  the  plat- 


SOUND  MONEY.  31 

form,  with  his  noble  young  face  aglow  with  patriotism  and 
inspired  purpose, ' '  as  Mr.  Coin  himself  would  doubtless 
describe  it,  were  he  writing  a  book  on  the  subject,  he 
stood,  like  the  statue  of  liberty  in  New  York  harbor,  pre- 
pared to  enlighten  the  world. 

" In  money,"  he  began,  "there  must  be  a  unit.  In 
arithmetic  those  of  you  who  have  passed  a  few  months,  or 
even  weeks,  perhaps,  in  the  public  schools  have  been 
taught  what  a  unit  is."  Turning  to  Clench,  he  said: 
"Couldn't  you  send  out  and  get  me  a  blackboard  and 
some  chalk,  Mr.  Chairman  ?  I  want  to  show  the  audi- 
ence what  a  unit  is.  Some  of  them  are  really  besotted  in 
their  ignorance  on  the  subject  of  units,  don't  you  know?" 

Chairman  Clench  sent  for  a  blackboard,  and  the  volun- 
tary witness  proceeded  to  give  the  two  stenographers 
something  to  do. 

'  'In  arithmetic  the  figure  i  is  a  unit.  A  unit, ' '  Coin  con- 
tinued, '  'in  mathematics,  was  a  necessity  as  a  basis  to  start 
from.  In  making  money  it  was  equally  as  necessary  to  es- 
tablish a  unit.  There  is  an  axiom  of  political  economy,  a 
science  of  which  I  am  a  complete  master,  to  this  effect — 
'no  money  no  unit,  no  unit  no  money. '  Now,  I  hope  you 
all  understand  what  a  unit  is. ' '  Turning  to  the  commission- 
ers, he  continued,  "Those  who'  don't  understand  about  the 
unit,  holdup  your  right  hands.  No  hands  up?  Good 
—you  have  captured  the  idea  of  the  unit  hands  down! 

"But  as  I  was  saying,  the  constitution  gave  Congress 
the  power  to  'coin  money  and  regulate  the  value  thereof. ' 
Congress  adopted  silver  and  gold  as  money.  It  then  pro- 
ceeded to  fix  the  unit,  and  the  unit  has  staid  fixed  ever 
since. 

"That  is,  it  then  fixed  what  should  constitute  one 
dollar,  the  same  thing  that  the  mathematician  did  when 


32  SO  UND  MONE  Y. 

he  fixed  one  figure  from  which  all  others  should  be 
counted.  Congress  fixed  the  monetary  unit  to  consist  of 
37 1%  grains  of  pure  silver,  and  provided  for  a  certain 
amount  of  alloy  to  be  mixed  with  it  to  give  it  greater 
hardness  and  durability.  This  was  in  1792,  in  the  days 
of  Washington  and  Jefferson  and  our  revolutionary  fore- 
fathers, who  had  a  hatred  of  England  and  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  her  designs  on  this  country.  "  Here 
he  glanced  at  Rafferty  and  felt  certain  that  he  had  one 
member  of  the  commission  safely  hypnotized.  He  con- 
tinued : 

"One  of  the  first  things  they  did  was  to  make  37 1^ 
grains  of  silver  the  unit  of  values.  That  much  silver  was  to 
constitute  a  dollar.  And  each  dollar  was  a  unit. ' ' 

At  this  moment  a  big,  doubled- jointed  teamster  who 
had  pushed  his  way  up  to  the  platform,  carrying  a  black- 
board, interrupted  the  witness  by  saying  : 

"Can  I  ask  you  a  question,  mister?" 

"You  can  if  you  have  a  tongue,  and  you  may  if  you 
choose,"  replied  Mr.  Coin  in  a  burst  of  pleasantry  and 
joyous  generosity. 

"Honest  to  gracious,  now,  is  a  unit  a  silver  dollar?" 

"Not  always;  but  a  silver  dollar  is  always  the  unit." 

"Is  that  so?"  mused  the  teamster.  "Well,  I  guess 
I'd  better  mosey  or  my  boss  won't  give  me  my  regular 
number  of  units  Saturday  night."  And  he  departed 
from  the  midst  of  a  grinning  audience.  Coin  looked 
annoyed  but  continued  as  if  nothing  had  happened  to 
interrupt  him. 

'  'They  then  provided  for  all  other  money  to  be  counted 
from  this  unit  of  a  .silver  dollar.  Hence,  dimes,  quarters 
and  half  dollars  were  exact  fractional  parts  of  the  dollar  so 
fixed." 


SOUND  MONEY.  33 

Here  Chairman  Clench  interrupted  the  witness  by 
asking  this  question: 

"You  say,  Mr.  Coin,  as  I  understand  it,  that  Congress 
fixed  371^  grains  of  silver  as  the  unit  of  money,  and  that 
the  man  that  wrote  the  arithmetic  fixed  the  figure  i  as  the 
unit  of  figuring.  What  was  the  figure  i  made  of  ?  Chalk 
or  ink  or  lead  pencil  or  what?" 

"It  doesn't  matter  what  the  figure  i  was  made  of," 
replied  Coin  hastily,  "it  was  only  established  as  a  unit." 

"Then,"  said  Clench,  "why  does  it  matter  what  a 
dollar  was  made  of?  It,  also,  was  only  established  as  a 
unit."  Coin  looked  wilted  as  he  replied,  "I'll  come  to 
that  point  later  on, "  and  continued  his  free  silver  argu- 
ment as  follows  : 

"Gold  was  made  money,  but  its  value  was  counted 
from  these  silver  units  or  dollars.  The  ratio  between  sil- 
ver and  gold  was  fixed  at  15  to  i  and  afterward  at  16  to 
i .  So  that  in  making  gold  coins  their  relative  weight  was 
regulated  by  this  ratio. 

"This  continued  to  be  the  law  up  to  1873.  During 
that  long  period  the  unit  of  values  was  never  changed  and 
always  contained  37 1^  grains  of  pure,  or  416  grains  of 
standard,  silver.  While  that  was  the  law  it  was  impos- 
sible for  any  one  to  say  that  the  silver  in  a  silver  dollar  was 
only  worth  47  cents  or  any  other  number  of  cents  less  than 
100  cents  or  a  dollar.  For  it  was  itself  the  unit  of  values, 
that  silver  dollar,  and  the  money  of  the  constitution. ' ' 

"Excuse  me,  Mr.  Coin,"  interrupted  Commissioner 
Hobbs  ;  ' '  but  you  say  that  the  silver  dollar  is  the  money 
of  the  constitution.  I  have  here,  a  copy  of  the  constitu- 
tion. Will  you  please  point  out  the  section  in  which  the 
silver  dollar  is  made  the  money  of  the  constitution?' '  He 
handed  the  book  to  Coin,  who  first  reached  out  to  take  it, 


34  SOUND  MONEY. 

then  drew  back  his  hand  and  thrust  it  into  his  pocket,  at 
at  the  same  time  biting  his  lip  in  his  annoyance.  At  length 
he  spoke. 

' 'We  use  the  term  'money  of  the  constitution'  because 
the  constitution  gives  congress  the  power  to  'coin  money 
and  regulate  the  value  thereof.'  Congress  coined  the 
silver  dollar  under  that  constitutional  power,  and  it  has 
been  construed  that,  as  the  silver  dollar  was  fixed  as  the 
unit  of  value  in  this  way,  it  became  the  money  of  the 
constitution. ' ' 

'  'Who  so  construed  it?' '  asked  Commissioner  Hobbs, 
who  is  a  gentleman  of  an  inquiring  turn  of  mind. 

"I  did,"  replied  Coin,  proudly. 

"Just  as  I  thought,"  said  Commissioner  Hobbs' 
"Well,  as  Congress  also  coined  gold  under  the  same  con- 
stitutional power  isn't  gold  also  the  money  of  the  consti- 
tution?" he  continued. 

"Gold  isn't  a  unit,"  replied  Coin. 

'  'You  greatly  misunderstood  me  if  you  thought  I  said 
it  was.  What  I  want  to  know  is  whether  gold  money  or 
a  gold  dollar  isn't  just  as  much  the  money  of  the  consti- 
tution as  silver  money  or  a  silver  dollar?' '  insisted  Hobbs. 

"I  don't  construe  the  constitution  that  way,"  was 
Coin's  reply.  Then  he  shut  up  like  a  clam  and  took  his 
seat.  The  hard  headed  carpenter  had  been  able  to  see 
through  his  illogical,  silly  sophistry  and  attempted  false 
pretense  as  to  the  constitutional  status  of  silver.  Coin 
was  badly  '  'rattled. ' '  Commissioner  Hobbs  now  whispered 
to  Chairman  Clench  and  the  latter  nodding  his  head,  as  if 
in  answer,  advanced  to  the  front  of  the  platform. 

"If  Mr.  Adlai  T.  Ewing  is  in  the  audience  the  com- 
mission would  like  to  hear  from  him,"  said  the  chairman. 
The  eminent  lawyer  made  his  way  to  the  platform,  fol- 


SOUND  MONEY.  35 

lowed  by  his  clerk,  who  carried  a  number  of  books  which 
he  placed  on  the  reporters'  table.  Mr.  Ewing  bowed  to 
the  audience  and  shook  hands  with  labor's  representatives. 

'  'The  cause  of  labor, ' '  he  said,  '  'has  once  more  honored 
itself  by  the  appointment  of  this  commission  to  inquire 
into  the  truth  or  falsity  of  the  claims  of  these  gentlemen 
who  are  trying  to  induce  the  people  to  exchange  their 
honest  money  for  that  which  is  cheap,  debased  and  dis- 
honest. I  shall  be  most  glad  if  I  can  throw  any  light 
upon  the  subject  which  will  aid  you  in  arriving  at  a  just 
conclusion  in  the  matter. ' ' 

"We  are  obliged  to  you,"  said  Chairman  Clench, 
"though  I  was  afraid  that  Commissioner  Hobbs  hadn't 
given  you  enough  time  to  prepare  your  answers  to  his 
questions. ' ' 

"I  have  made  a  careful  note  of  the  questions,"  replied 
the  lawyer,  "and,  as  requested,  have  brought  with  me 
the  books  which  answer  them.  It  has  just  been  stated  by 
this  witness,  Mr.  Coin,  that  Congress  by  law  established 
as  the  unit  of  our  money  37 1  %  grains  of  pure,  or  41 6  grains 
of  standard  silver,  and  called  the  name  of  that  money  unit 
a  dollar. ' ' 

"That's  just  it,  exactly,"  interrupted  Commissioner 
Rafferty.  '  'That  is  the  foundation  of  the  whole  claim,  and 
it  has  never  been  disproved  by  you  gold  standard  gentle- 
men. It  is  unanswerable. ' ' 

The  learned  lawyer  smiled  amusedly  as  he  selected  one 
of  his  books,  a  small  octavo  volume,  printed  on  handmade 
linen  paper,  whose  ink  had  turned  brown  with  age.  No 
wonder — it  was  over  a  hundred  years  old. 

'  'The  contention  is  so  absurdly  at  variance  with  well 
known  historical  facts,"  said  Mr.  Ewing,  "that  until  the 
nonsense  talked  by  Mr.  Coin  gave  it  prominence  nobody 


36  SOUND  MONEY. 

ever  took  the  trouble  to  contradict  it.  This  little  book, ' '  he 
continued,  holding  it  open  at  the  title  page  ^for  Commis- 
sioner Raff erty's  inspection,  '4s  the  tenth  volume  of  the 
Journals  of  Congress,  the  congressional  record  of  those 
glorious  patriots  who  were  the  fathers  of  this  great  Nation. 
Turning  to  pages  157  and  158  we  find  the  first  record  of 
what  Congress  settled  should  be  the  unit  of  our  money  in 
the  following  words."  He  then  read  this  extract: 

"  'Wednesday,  July  6,  1785,  Congress  took  into  con- 
sideration the  report  of  the  grand  committee  on  the  sub- 
ject of  a  money  unit;  and  on  the  question,  That  the  money 
unit  of  the  United  States  of  America  be  one  dollar,  the 
yeas  and  nays  being  required  by  Mr.  Howell,  every 
member  answering  aye,  it  was 

* '  'Resolved,  that  the  money  unit  of  the  United  States 
of  America  be  one  dollar. 

* '  'Resolved,  that  the  smallest  coin  be  of  copper,  of 
which  200  shall  pass  for  one  dollar. 

'  'Resolved,  that  the  several  pieces  shall  increase  in  a 
decimal  ratio. ' 

*  'This  is  the  record  of  the  establishment  of  our  unit  of 
money,"  continued  Mr.  Kwing,  "and  if  our  friend,  Coin, 
is  not  trying  to  fuddle  us  with  false  logic,  if  the  process 
by  which  he  reasons  out  his  silver  dollar  theory  is  sound, 
he  is  bound  to  admit  that  he  did  not  go  back  far  enough, 
and  that  what  Congress  really  did  do  was  to  establish  a 
copper  dollar  consisting  of  200  subdivisions. ' ' 

A  roar  of  laughter  greeted  this  self -evident  proposition, 
and  Harvey  Coin  looked  very  much  like  the  man  who 
came  into  unexpected  contact  with  a  bucket  of  ice  water. 

"It  was  not  any  certain  number  of  copper  coins,"  con- 
tinued Mr.  Ewing,  '  'nor  any  fixed  quantity  of  gold  or  sil- 
ver, nor  any  words  which  should  be  printed  on  paper  or 


SOUND  MONEY.  37 

other  material,  whichCongress  thus  established  as  the  unit 
of  our  money.  It  was  simply  the  unit  itself — one  dollar. 
Not  a  copper  dollar,  a  silver  dollar,  a  gold  dollar  nor  a 
paper  dollar — that  was  not  the  point.  Congress  was 
making  a  change  from  the  clumsy  Hnglish  system  of 
pounds,  shillings  and  pence,  and,  as  the  last  clause  of  the 
resolution  shows,  establishing  the  more  simple  and  con- 
venient decimal  system." 

Another  round  of  applause,  followed  by  a  buzz  of  ex- 
citement, swept  through  the  crowded  audience.  Coin, 
who  was  seated  next  to  his  attorney,  Clarence  Darrow, 
carried  on  an  eager  conversation  with  him  in  whispers  for 
a  few  moments,  and  then  sprang  to  his  feet  with  a  tri- 
umphant gleam  in  his  eyes. 

"What  year  was  that?"  he  demanded,  trembling  with 
excitement. 

"1785,"  replied  the  witness. 

"Then  it  doesn't  apply,"  declared  the  bumptious  little 
fellow,  '  'for  the  constitution  was  not  adopted  until  Sep- 
tember 17,  1787!"  Coin,  who  had  stepped  forward  as  he 
spoke,  strutted  back  to  his  seat  with  the  air  of  a  man  who 
has  stormed  a  masked  battery  single-handed  and  still 
lived  to  tell  the  tale. 

"The  coinage  act,"  he  continued,  "was  not  passed 
until  March  4,  1792,  and  in  that  act  it  was  that  Congress 
fixed  the  monetary  unit  of  371^  grains  of  pure  silver  or 
416  grains  of  standard  silver.  That  much  silver  was  to 
constitute  a  dollar  and  each  dollar  was  a  unit. ' '  With  a 
triumphant  expression  of  countenance  and  a  ridiculous 
little  swagger,  the  spectacular  Mr.  Coin  resumed  his  seat. 
The  keen  witted  lawyer  had  smiled  pityingly  as  the  argu- 
ment, which  was  composed  of  equal  parts  of  bounce  and 
bumptiousness,  proceeded,  and  it  was  with  real  commis- 


S8  SOUND  MONEY. 

eration  in  his  voice  for  the  ignorance  of  his  opponent  that 
he  replied. 

"Fact  and  fiction  are  so  intimately  interwoven  in 
the  statements  of  my  misguided  young  friend,"  he  began, 
*  'that  I  find  it  difficult  to  determine  whether  his  misstate- 
ments  are  the  result  of  ignorance  or  deliberation.  For 
instance,  he  wants  us  to  believe  that  this  Nation  was  not 
born  until  the  seventeenth  day  of  September,  1787. 
I  have  always  been  taught  to  celebrate  the  birthday  of 
my  country  on  the  fourth  of  July,  and  to  fix  its  date  at 
1776.  Having  been  set  right  by  Mr.  Coin,  however,  I 
have  no  doubt  that  the  other  67  millions  of  us  will  at 
once  revise  our  calendar  to  meet  his  views. ' ' 

This  sally  was  greeted  with  a  roar  of  laughter,  and 
the  witness  continued:  "The  United  States  of  America 
did  not  begin  their  existence  with  the  adoption  of  the  con- 
stitution, but  with  the  signing  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, and  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation  had 
full  power  delegated  to  it  to  act  in  the  matter  of  establish- 
ing a  system  of  money,  a  coinage  and  a  paper  currency. 
It  not  only  had  the  power,  but  it  acted.  It  issued  paper 
money,  raised  loans  and  paid  debts.  It  enjoyed  and  used 
every  parliamentary  prerogative  as  the  representative  of 
the  whole  people,  and  did  all  this  in  the  name  of  the 
United  States  of  America.  After  the  constitution  was 
adopted  and  the  country  was  restored  to  tranquility, 
after  those  sturdy  sires  of  ours  had  held  the  power  and 
glory  of  England  so  cheap  that  with  their  little  patriot 
few  they  had  dared  her  and  had  driven  her  redcoats  from 
the  free  soil  of  a  free  people,  Congress  found  time  to  turn 
its  attention  to  the  coinage  of  money  on  its  own  account. 

"Upfto  this  time  the  only  coins  had  been  Spanish  sil- 
ver and   gold,  with  a  few  stray  pieces  of   French  and 


SOUND  MONEY.  39 

British  gold,    together   with  a  vagrant  copper  coinage 
culled  from  the  coffers  of  half  a  dozen  different  nations. 

"On  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  all  the  acts  of  the 
Congress  of  the  Confederation  had  been  ratified,  among 
them  those  establishing  the  decimal  system  of  enumerat- 
ing money,  with  the  dollar  as  the  unit.  Not  a  silver  or  a 
gold  or  any  other  kind  of  a  dollar  had  been  established,  as 
I  have  already  pointed  out,  not  371^  grains  of  silver  or 
24.7  grains  of  gold,  which  was  afterwards  established 
by  Congress  as  the  gold  dollar,  but,  in  the  language  of  the 
resolution,  'one  dollar. '  Why,  in  the  index  to  this  book, ' ' 
and  here  he  opened  it  at  the  letter  M  and  pointed  it  out  to 
the  three  commissioners,  "the  matter  is  referred  to  in  this 
way:  'Money  unit  to  be  a  dollar,'  not  'Money  unit  to  be 
37  rX  grains  of  silver,'  as  it  would  be  were  Mr.  Coin's 
assumption  correct. 

"On  Tuesday,  August  8,  1786,  Congress  passed  the 
following: 

"  'Resolved,  That  the  standard  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  for  gold  and  silver,  shall  be  eleven  parts  fine  and 
one  part  alloy. 

"  'That  the  money  unit  of  the  United  States,  being 
by  the  resolve  of  Congress  of  the  6th  July,  1785,  a  dollar, 
it  shall  contain  of  fine  silver  375y6Tr%  grains. 

' '  'That  the  money  of  account  to  correspond  with  the 
division  of  coins,  agreeably  to  the  above  resolve,  proceed 
in  a  decimal  ratio,  agreeably  to  the  forms  and  manner  fol- 
lowing, viz: 
"'Mills — The   lowest   money  of  accompt,   of  which 

1,000  shall  be  equal  to  the  federal  dollar  or  money 

unit * o.ooi 

"  'Cents — The  highest  copper  piece,  of  which  100  shall 

be  equal  to  the  dollar 0,010 


40  SOUND  MONEY. 

"  'Dimes — The  lowest  silver  coin,  10  of  which  shall  be 

equal  to  the  dollar o.  i  oo 

' '  'Dollar — The  highest  silver  coin ' . .  i.ooo 

' '  'That  betwixt  the  dollar  and  the  lowest  copper  coin 
as  fixed  by  the  resolve  of  Congress  of  the  6th  July,  1785, 
there  shall  be  three  silver  coins  and  one  copper  coin. 

"  'That  the  silver  coin  shall  be  as  follows:  One  coin 
containing  iSy^A  grains  of  fine  silver,  to  be  called  A 
Half  Dollar.  One  coin  containing  75-1^-  grains  of  fine 
silver,  to  be  called  A  Double  Dime;  and  one  coin  contain- 
ing 37-iWV  grains  of  fine  silver,  to  be  called  A  Dime. 

"  'That  the  two  copper  coins  shall  be  as  follows:  One 
equal  to  the  icoth  part  of  the  federal  dollar,  to  be  called 
A  Cent;  and  one  equal  to  the  2ooth  part  of  the  Federal 
dollar,  to  be  called  A  Half  Cent. 

' '  'That  two  pounds  and  a  quarter  avoirdupois  weight 
of  copper  shall  constitute  100  cents.' 

"You  observe,"  said  Mr.  Ewing,  as  he  paused  in  his 
reading  for  a  moment,  "that  if  we  adopt  Mr.  Coin's  reas- 
oning for  the  establishment  of  371^  grains  of  silver  as  the 
unit,  and  having  distinctly  shown  that  he  did  not  go  back 
far  enough,  he  is  now  bound  to  admit  that  he  was  mis- 
taken, and  to  revise  his  statement  so  that  it  reads:  'Copper 
was  established  as  the  unit  of  value  of  our  money.  Two 
pounds  and  a  quarter  of  the  red  metal  was  constituted  one 
dollar,  and  every  dollar  a  unit,  and  that  unit  has  never 
been  changed. '  ' ' 

There  was  another  roar  of  laughter  and  applause  as 
the  witty  lawyer  made  this  telling  point. 

' '  After  he  and  his  friends  succeed  in  their  efforts  to  get 
fifty  cents  worth  of  silver  freely  coined  into  one  hundred 
cent  dollars,  without  limit,  at  a  ratio  of  16  of  silver  to  i  of 
gold,  their  next  move  will  doubtless  be  to  egg  on  the  cop- 


SOUND  MONEY.  41 

per  miners  to  agitate  for  the  free  and  unlimited  coinage  of 
their  product  at  a  ratio  of  two  pounds  and  a  quarter  avoir- 
dupois, of  fine  copper,  worth  about  32  cents,  to  37 1^ 
grains  of  fine  silver,  worth  about  fifty  cents,  or  23.2  grains 
of  pure  gold,  worth  one  hundred  cents,  and  that  this  money 
shall  be  legal  tender  to  any  amount.  They  can  find  just 
as  good  authority  for  copper  coinage  as  for  that  of  silver 
along  the  same  line  of  reasoning.  They  will  find  support, 
not  only  in  this  act  of  Congress  establishing  2  %  pounds 
of  copper  as  the  unit  of  value,  but  on  the  free  silver  argu- 
ment that  because  silver  was  once  valuable  in  the  propor- 
tion of  1 6  to  i  of  gold,  it  ought  to  be  still  coined  at  that 
ratio,  so  copper,  which  was  at  a  ratio  of  2  to  i  of  gold 
when  the  Spaniards  invaded  Peru,  may  also  be,  to  quote 
their  pet  expression  'rehabilitated  and  restored  to  its  full 
value  and  money  function  by  free  and  unlimited  coinage 
at  a  parity  with  gold  and  silver. '  *  This  caused  another 
roar  of  laughter,  mingled  with  cheers,  as  the  full  absurdity 
of  the  free  silver  position  became  plain  to  the  attentive 
and  intelligent  audience. 

''The  remaining  clause  of  this  act,"  resumed  Mr. 
Ewing,  "reads  as  follows: 

"  'That  there  shall  be  two  gold  coins:  One  containing 
246TY<nr  grains  of  fine  gold,  equal  to  10  dollars,  to  be 
stamped  with  the  impression  of  the  American  eagle,  and 
to  be  called  An  Eagle:  One  containing  123-^^  grains  of 
fine  gold,  equal  to  5  dollars,  to  be  stamped  in  like  manner, 
and  to  be  called  A  Half  Eagle. ' 

'  'This  act  recognizes  the  unit  and  fixes  the  amount  of 
copper,  silver  and  gold  which  it  shall  contain  at  2  ^ 
pounds,  avoirdupois,  of  copper,  375^4ir  grains  of  fine  sil- 
ver and  24T6o2<nr  grains  of  fine  gold.  I  defy  Mr.  Coin  or 
anybody  else  to  find  in  it  any  excuse  whatever  for  the 


THE.  TWO 
VNITJ?   RV/N 
AHD  H/DE 


WHAT  HAPPENED  TO 

MONEy  WHEN  THE 
AWAY 


wtf, 


Under  free  Coinage  of 

Copper  Mrs.  Smith  Does  out 

to  buy  a  pound  of  steak, 

Mr.  Smith  takes  along  the  cash  to 
pay  for  it  In  the  family  wheelbarrow. 


42  SOUND  MONEY. 

absurd  statement  that  the  unit  of  our  money  was  denom- 
inated as  so  much  silver.  If  he  can  do  so  to  his  own  satis- 
tion  I  advise  him  to  swear  off  thinking  and  take  the  gold 
cure  without  delay,"  concluded  the  clear  headed  lawyer 
as  he  handed  the  book,  opened  at  the  page  from  which  he 
had  quoted  for  the  inspection  of  the  three  commissioners. 

Coin  was  furious.  In  this  knock-down  blow  he  recog- 
nized the  interesting  truth  that  war  had  been  declared  on 
his  mistatements  of  fact,  and  that  logical  arguments  on 
true  foundations  must  inevitably  crush  all  the  life  out  of 
his  plausibly  constructed  fairy  tales.  Something  must  be 
done  to  stem  the  tide.  As  he  had  himself  concocted  the 
silver  unit  idea  he  felt  all  the  pride  of  a  parent  in  his  off- 
spring, even  though  this  child  of  his  imagination  was 
illegitimate  and  spurious.  While  he  was  rapidly  revolv- 
ing in  his  mind  some  plan  of  reply,  his  friend,  Commis- 
sioner Rafferty,  came  to  his  relief. 

"Do  I  understand  you  to  say,  sir,"  he  asked,  "that  it 
was  this  act  under  which  our  mint  was  established?" 

"I  did  not  make  that  statement,"  was  the  reply,  "nor 
would  it  be  strictly  true. ' ' 

"I  thought  not,"  said  Rafferty.  "Now,  sir,"  he 
went  on  with  the  air  of  a  man  who  has  made  an  important 
discovery,  "I  presume  you  neglected  to  bring  with  you 
the  act  of  1792  under  which  our  mint  was  actually  estab- 
lished." 

"Your  presumption,  then,  is  in  error,  sir,"  replied  Mr. 
Kwing.  "I  have  here  the  original  act  as  printed  at  the 
time.  This  is  the  third  volume  of  the  "Debates  and  Pro- 
ceedings in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States. ' '  It  reports 
the  second  Congress  from  October,  1791,  to  March,  1793, 
inclusive.  Turning  to  pages  i35i-'2-'3-'4-'5  and  '6  of 
the  appendix  we  find  the  full  text  of  'An  Act  Establishing 


SOUND  MONEY.  43 

a  Mint  and  Regulating  the  Coins  of  the  United  States' 
approved  by  President  George  Washington,  April  2,  1792. 
You  will  observe  that  this  act  is  not  for  the  purpose  of 
establishing  a  system  of  money,  nor  the  unit  of  that 
money,  nor  even  for  establishing  a  coinage.  Those  things 
had  already  been  done  by  a  former  Congress,  and  this  act 
was  for  the  purpose  of  putting  into  effect  the  work  of 
their  predecessors  and  'regulating'  the  coinage  they  had 
already  provided  for  by  law  by  bringing  the  amount  of 
gold  and  silver  in  the  coins  into  conformity  with  the  ratio 
of  the  value  of  the  two  metals  as  they  then  sold  in  the 
markets  of  the  world.  The  previous  Congress  had  re- 
solved that  375i6o4o-  grains  of  silver  should  be  contained  in 
(not  be}  a  dollar,  and  that  an  eagle  should  contain  246T2o6o3o 
grains  of  gold.  The  congress  of  1792  changed  these  pro- 
portions to  37iyV  and  247!,  respectively.  The  unit  of 
value  was  not  reaffirmed,  but  taken  as  already  settled  by 
the  means  I  have  shown,  and  so  were  the  names  of  the 
various  coins.  This  work  had  been  already  done  and 
well  done.  It  would  have  been  folly  to  do  it  over  again. 
'  'Section  9  of  the  act  is  the  only  one  which  touches  on  this 
branch  of  the  subject.  I  will  read  you  the  section  complete. 
"  'And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  there  shall  be  from 
time  to  time  struck  and  coined,  at  the  said  mint,  coins  of 
gold,  silver  and  copper  of  the  following  denominations, 
values  and  descriptions,  viz:  Eagles,  each  to  be  of  the 
value  of  ten  dollars,  or  units,  and  to  contain  247  grains 
and  |  of  a  grain  of  pure,  or  270  grains  of  standard  gold; 
Half  Eagles,  each  to  be  of  the  value  of  five  dollars,  and 
to  contain  123  grains  and  f  of  a  grain  of  pure,  or  135 
gains  of  standard  gold;  Quarter  Eagles,  each  to  be  of  the 
value  of  two  dollars  and  a  half  dollar,  and  to  contain  61 
grains  and  •£  of  a  grain  of  standard  gold;  Dollars,  or 


44  SOUND  MONEY. 

Units,  each  to  be  of  the  value  of  a  Spanish  milled  dollar, 
as  the  same  is  now  current,  and  to  contain  371  grains  and 
r\  parts  of  a  grain  of  pure,  or  416  grains  of  standard, 
silver;  Half  Dollars,  each  to  be  of  half  the  value  of  a 
dollar,  or  unit,  and  to  contain  185  grains  and  \\  parts  of 
a  grain  of  pure,  or  208  grains  of  standard  silver;  Quarter 
Dollars,  each  to  be  of  one  quarter  the  value  of  the  dollar, 
or  unit,  and  to  contain  92  grains  and  \\  parts  of  a 
grain  of  pure,  or  104  grains  of  standard,  silver.'  " 

''Excuse  me,"  interrupted  Chairman  Clench,  "If  my 
two  mates,  here,  are  satisfied,  I  am,  and  there  is  no  need 
to  read  any  further  on  this  point. ' ' 

"I  surely  am,"  assented  Hobbs  with  emphasis. 

"I've  heard  enough  law  quoted,"  said  Rafferty,  "but 
I  am  not  quite  clear  on  your  conclusions.  Would  you 
mind  summing  them  up?" 

"With  pleasure,"  replied  the  lawyer.  "Congress,  by 
resolution  of  July  6,  1785,  established  the  decimal  system 
of  money  with  one  dollar  as  the  unit.  The  first  metal  in 
which  the  value  of  that  unit  was  expressed  was  copper, 
neither  silver  nor  gold  being  mentioned.  On  August  8, 
1786,  Congress  advanced  the  coinage  question  several 
steps  by  determining  the  fineness  of  the  standard  gold  and 
silver,  and  denominating  the  quantity  of  silver,  gold  or 
copper  which  should  be  contained  in  a  dollar,  that  being 
the  agreed  abstract  unit  of  value.  By  the  same  act 
the  other  coins  were  named  in  a  decimal  system  or  ratio, 
and  the  amounts  of  gold  and  silver  they  were  to  contain 
determined.  March  4,  1792,  it  being  then  expedient  to 
begin  coinage,  Congress  passed  another  act  specifying  in 
detail  how  the  mint  should  be  established  and  conducted. 
It  also  added  to  and  amended  the  two  former  acts  in  refer- 
ence to  the  weights  of  gold,  silver  and  copper  in  the 


SOUND  MONEY. 


45 


various  coins.  At  the  same  time  it  confirmed,  by  its 
silence,  all  those  parts  of  the  two  previous  acts  which  it 
did  not  amend;  including  the  abstract  unit  of  value,  which 
was  and  is  as  abstract  as  the  unit  of  arithmetic,  and  the 
names  and  designs  of  the  coins  and  the  decimal  system. 
If  any  preference  was  shown,  it  was  shown  to  copper, 
whose  coinage  and  value,  as  compared  with  the  unit, 
was  first  provided  for.  The  above  being  the  enact- 
ments of  Congress  it  matters  little  what  the  opin- 
ions of  individuals  who  debated  the  question  may 
have  been.  But  it  may  be  interesting  to  know  that 
Alexander  Hamilton,  the  first  secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
favored  making  a  gold  dollar  the  unit  of  value  and  had 
many  supporters.  He  maintained  that  gold  was  more  stable 
than  silver,  an  opinion  which  has  since  been  fully  justi- 
fied by  the  facts,  while  his  opponents,  the  two  Morrises, 
Jefferson  and  others  wanted  silver  named.  The  result 
was  that  Congress  determined  to  adopt  neither  metal,  but 
on  the  contrary,  enacted  a  double  standard,  with  gold  and 
silver  on  a  parity  at  their  then  commercial  ratio.  That 
ratio  was  not  a  fixed  proportion,  but  was  intended  to  be 
varied  as  the  commercial  ratio  changed,  and  as  a  matter  of 
fact  it  has  twice  been  changed  by  the  reduction  of  the 
amount  of  gold  in  the  gold  coinage,  while  that  of  silver  in 
the  silver  dollar  remained  the  same." 

"That  proves  that  silver  was  the  unit,"  roared  Coin. 
"If  it  had  not  been  they  would  have  increased  the  amount 
of  silver  instead  of  reducing  the  amount  of  gold. ' ' 

This  argument  seemed  to  be  a  clincher,  and  for  the  first 
time  since  the  session  opened,  the  silver  advocates  got  up 
sufficient  enthusiasm  to  cheer. 

"Oh,  thou  of  little  sense!"  exclaimed  Mr.  Kwing. 
"Don't  you  see  the  reason  why?  Because  gold,  being  so 


46  SOUtfD  MONEY. 

much  more  valuable  than  silver,  the  number  of  silver  coins 
to  be  melted  down  and  recoined  would  have  been  enorm- 
ously larger  than  to  recoin  the  gold,  to  say  nothing  of 
making  the  silver  coinage  even  more  bulky  and  unwieldy 
than  it  now  is.  It  was  simply  a  matter  of  convenience 
and  expense.  Our  standard  was  double  and  we  were 
obliged  to  rearrange  our  ratio  in  conformity  with  the  laws 
of  commerce  or  lose  all  our  gold. ' ' 

This  crushing  reply  settled  Commissioner  Rafferty's 
rising  hopes.  When  Mr.  Bwing  asked  pleasantly,  just 
before  resuming  his  seat,  whether  there  was  any  further 
question  he  would  like  to  put,  the  free  coinage  commis- 
sioner was  dazed  and  wrapped  up  in  his  own  bitter  reflec- 
tions to  such  an  extent  that  he  so  far  forgot  his  native 
politeness  as  to  make  no  reply. 

Two  main  props  had  been  knocked  from  under  his  pet 
theory. 

It  was  beyond  question  that,  contrary  to  the  false 
teachings  of  Coin,  silver  is  not  "the  money  of  the  consti- 
tution" in  any  greater  degree  than  is  gold. 

Silver  in  any  quantity  is  not  and  never  was  by  law 
established  as  the  unit  of  our  money  system.  That  unit 
of  value,  under  the  coinage  act  of  1792,  might  have  been 
equally  represented  by  gold,  silver  or  copper. 

That  unit  of  value  always  was  until  1873  as  abstract 
as  the  figure  i  and  its  outward  and  its  visible  sign  is  $. 


SOUND  MONEY.  47 


CHAPTER    II. 

COIN'S   FALSIFIED   FIGURES   EXPOSED. 

So  intense  was  the  interest  of  the  people  in  the  ques- 
tion of  Sound  vs.  Dishonest  Money,  that  two  hours  before 
the  time  announced  for  the  meeting  to  begin  there  were  a 
hundred  men  waiting  for  admission  where  but  one  could 
by  any  possibility  squeeze  into  the  hall.  All  sorts  and 
conditions  of  men  were  represented,  among  them  many  of 
the  working  class  and  office  men  out  of  employment.  To 
them  the  question  bore  a  deep  significance.  They  had 
just  passed  through  the  privations  entailed  by  a  financial 
and  industrial  panic,  and  were  not  anxious  to  renew  the 
experience.  If  free  silver  coinage  meant  that,  as  all  the 
respectable  newspapers  assured  them  it  did,  they  wanted 
none  of  it. 

When  Harvey  Coin  arrived  at  Randolph  and  LaSalle 
streets,  a  few  minutes  before  10  o'clock,  he  found  a 
strong  detail  of  policemen  busily  engaged  in  preserving 
order  among  an  immense  crowd  which  seemed  bent  on 
storming  the  door  of  the  Industrial  World  building.  It  was 
only  after  much  difficulty  and  making  proof  of  his  identity 
to  the  intelligent  officer  stationed  at  the  door,  that  he  was 
enabled  to  make  his  way  upstairs.  On  arriving  in  the 
hall  he  was  at  once  recognized  by  the  crowd,  packed  like 
figs  in  a  box,  and  a  passageway  was  opened  for  him  to 
the  platform.  From  the  cheering  which  took  place  when 
Coin  mounted  the  rostrum  and  greeted  the  three  commis- 
sioners, who  were  already  in  their  places,  it  was  apparent  that 
the  silver  element  was  present  in  force  to  cheer  its  leader. 


48  SOUND  MONEV. 

From  every  side  came  cries  of  "Coin,  Coin!"  which, 
as  that  gentleman  himself  might  say,  were  he  writing  the 
narrative  of  what  occurred,  ''The  distinguished  financier 
acknowledged  with  a  courteous  bow  and  an  engaging  smile, 
whose  magnetism  thrilled  the  senses  of  all  beholders." 

Before  the  session  was  declared  open,  Coin  advanced 
to  the  front  of  the  little  stage  and  said:  "Mr.  Chairman, 
it  is  evident  that  this  hall  is  not-  large  enough  to  accom- 
modate even  a  handfull  of  those  who  wish  to  hear  the  pro- 
ceedings. I  would  suggest  that  we  move  into  more  com- 
modious quarters." 

"No  arrangements  have  been  made  for  that, ' '  returned 
Chairman  Clench.  "The  Federation  didn't  vote  us.  any 
money  for  hall  rent. ' ' 

"That  need  not  trouble  you,"  said  Coin.  "The 
Bi-metallic  L,eague  will  foot  the  expense  if  we  can  find  a 
a  larger  hall  for  to-day's  session." 

After  some  consultation  it  was  decided  to  accept  Coin's 
proposal  and  move  to  Plasterers'  Hall,  and  as  soon  as  this 
was  announced  the  news  was  transmitted  to  the  crowd  in 
the  street.  In  less  than  two  minutes  the  small  army  of 
interested  men  was  on  its  way  to  the  West  side.  Once 
arrived  there,  no  time  was  lost,  and  with  a  large  table  on 
either  side  of  the  platform,  one  for  the  accommodation  of 
the  commission  and  the  other  for  witnesses  and  reporters, 
the  proceedings  were  immediately  opened. 

"If  Mr.  Coin  is  ready  to  continue  his  evidence,"  said 
Commissioner  Rafferty,  "I  move  that  he  be  heard." 

"I  would  like  to  ask,"  said  Commissioner  Hobbs, 
whether  the  gentleman  is  willing  to  answer  questions  as 
he  goes  along?  It  would  simplify  the  matter,  I  think. ' ' 

"Answering  questions  is  my  little  specialty," 
responded  Coin,  with  a  smile.  "Anybody  may  ask  me 


SOUND  MONEY.  49 

any  question  pertinent  to  the  branch  of  the  subject  I  am 
discussing  and  I  will  answer  to  the  best  of  my  ability. 
But  I  warn  would-be  questioners  that  I'll  not  spare 
them. "  As  he  said  this  he  drew  himself  up  to  the  fullest 
extent  of  his  feet  and  inches,  and  assumed  an  expression 
of  almost  cannibalistic  ferocity.  A  keen-eyed  gentleman 
who  occupied  a  front  seat,  and  who  had  deposited 
under  his  chair  a  number  of  books  and  papers,  did  not 
seem  to  be  at  all  awed  by  this  declaration. 

"Prior  to  1873,"  began  the  witness,  "when  the 
stealthy  crime  of  demonitization  was  committed,  we  had 
coined  one  hundred  and  five  millions  of  silver  in  the 
United  States.  You  will  find  these  figures  in  my  invalu- 
able hand-book. ' ' 

"May  I  interrupt  you  with  a  question?"  asked  the 
keen-eyed  gentleman  before  mentioned. 

"Certainly,"  replied  the  witness. 

"Then,"  said  the  gentleman,  who  was  Clinton  B. 
Evans,  editor  of  The  Economist,  an  able  financial  writer 
and  an  acknowledged  authority,  on  economics,  "will  you 
state  where  you  got  those  figures?" 

"I  don't  recollect,"  was  the  evasive  reply. 

"In  that  case,"  said  Editor  Evans,  "I  would  advise 
you  to  take  them  out  of  your  invaluable  hand-book.  I 
hold  here  the  report  of  the  director  of  the  mint  for  1894, 
which,  on  page  343,  proves  that  you  are  wrong  by  the 
trifling  amount  of  $37,365,115.70,  or  more  than  all  the 
money  coined  by  the  United  States  in  the  first  thirty- 
seven  years  after  the  opening  of  the  mint  in  1792." 

This  was  a  poser,  and  Coin  staggered  under  it.  Some- 
body had  at  last  taken  the  trouble  to  investigate  his  fig- 
ures, and  he  trembled  when  he  thought  what  damning 
exposures  were  possible  if  anything  like  a  thorough  search 


50  SOUND  MONEY. 

of  his  alleged  facts  should  be  made.  In  an  instant  he 
had  decided  on  his  course.  He  would  bluff  the  editor, 
the  commission  and  the  crowd,  as  he  had  already  bluffed 
the  unsuspecting  public. 

"I  deny  it!"  he  shouted  wildly.  The  audience, 
which  had  waited  breathlessly  for  his  reply  to  the  serious 
accusation  of  falsifying  statistics  which  have  been  a  mat- 
ter of  government  record,  year  by  year,  for  more  than  a 
century,  cheered  like  mad.  The  charge  seemed  too  pre- 
posterous. 

"I  repeat,"  he  said  with  distinct  emphasis  on  every 
word,  "that  from  1792  until  1873  we  only  coined  105 
million  dollars  of  silver. ' ' 

"Will  one  of  the  commissioners  please  read  to  the 
audience  these  figures  from  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  for  1894,"  said  Mr.  Evans  quietly  as  he 
handed  the  book  to  Commissioner  Rafferty,  who  hap- 
pened to  be  the  member  nearest  to  him. 

"One  hundred  and  forty-two  millions,  three  hundred 
and  sixty-five  thousand,  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
and  seventy  cents, ' '  read  the  free  silver  member  of  the 
commission,  who,  evidently,  did  not  relish  his  job. 

"My  figures  are  right,  nevertheless,"  insisted  Coin. 
'  'The  director  of  the  mint  has  done  the  falsifying,  not  I. 
In  fact,  I  can't  be  wrong.  I  shall  force  him  to  retract 
his  statement. ' ' 

There  was  a  roar  of  laughter  at  this  absurd  threat  and 
the  sentiment  of  the  audience  underwent  a  change  as 
remarkable  as  it  was  sudden.  Coin's  whole  argument 
had  been  built  upon  alleged  statistics  the  truth  or  falsity 
of  which  the  average  man  would  have  no  means  of  veri- 
fying. If  he  lied  in  his  statistics  the  whole  free  silver 
fabric  fell  to  the  ground,  as  every  man  who  had  been 


SOUND  MONEY.  51 

warped  from  sound  money  views  to  free  coinage  at  16  to 
i,  by  Coin  and  his  arguments,  was  ready  to  admit.  The 
eager  listeners  were  quick  to  see  the  significance  of  what 
had  happened  and  were  now  intently  watching  for  the 
next  move  of  the  aggressive  editor.  They  had  not  long 
to  wait. 

"Up  to  the  crime  of  1873,"  continued  Coin,  "when 
John  Sherman,  in  obedience  to  orders  received  by  cable, 
probably,  direct  from  London,  sneaked  the  bill  through 
Congress  which  degraded  and  demonetized  the  dollar  of 
our  daddies,  the  silver  dollar  was  our  unit  of  values  and 
the  money  of  the  people.  In  its  place  he  substituted  the 
gold  of  England  with  the  wicked  purpose  of  bringing  this 
country  to  the  verge  of  ruin  and  now,  twenty- two  years 
later,  we  have  reached  that  verge  and  find  ourselves 
bound,  hand  and  foot,  and  delivered  over  to  the  clutches 
of  John  Bull." 

Here  Chairman  Clench  asked  a  question. 

1  'You  have  stated,  Mr.  Coin,"  he  said,  "that  the  sil- 
ver dollar  is  the  dollar  of  our  daddies  and  the  money  of 
the  people.  How  many  silver  dollars  had  been  coined 
prior  to  1873?" 

"Eight  millions,"  replied  Coin  after  referring  to  his 
"invaluable  hand  book." 

'  'That  looks  like  a  mighty  small  few  to  be  in  use  as 
the  money  of  the  people,"  commented  the  big  blacksmith. 
"If  our  population  in  1873  was  about  forty  millions  only 
one  person  in  five  could  get  one  of  these  dollars. ' ' 

"Not  even  one  in  five,"  put  in  the  editor.  "Mr. 
Coin  needs  to  revise  his  figures  if  he  ever  means  to  tell 
the  straight  truth  without  any  frills  or  fabrications.  In 
this  same  report,  page  339,  the  Director  of  the  Mint  shows 
that  from  1792  to  1873,  the  year  in  whichCongress  commit- 


52  SOUND  MONEY. 

ted'  that  'horrible  crime'  only  seven  million,  seven  hun- 
dred and  thirty-four  thousand,  seven  hundred  ana  thirty- 
eight  of  these  'dollars  of  our  daddies'  were  ever  coined." 

There  was  again  a  sensation  all  through  the  house. 
What  did  this  man  mean  by  brazenly  foisting  upon  the 
public  such  fraudulent  statistics? 

"That  is  immaterial,"  Coin  replied,  looking  very 
uneasy,  "I  merely  gave  round  numbers." 

"A  statistical  hand  book,"  was  the  retort,  "doesn't 
deal  in  numbers  so  round  that  they  make  a,  difference  of 
nearly  four  per  cent — not  if  it's  an  honest  hand  book." 

"How  can  you  expect  a  man  who  advocates  national 
dishonesty  to  be  honest  himself?"  shouted  a  man  in  the 
gallery  and  the  audience  applauded  the  question  which 
required  no  answer. 

Before  Coin  could  recover  his  breath  Evans  was  at  him 
again  with  another  question. 

'  'Why  do  you  call  silver  the  money  of  the  people  ?' '  he 
asked. 

"Because  it  has  been  so  ever  since  the  dawn  of  his- 
tory," was  the  reply.  "Because  on  account  of  its  greater 
value  than  gold  and  its  greater  durability  it  is  better 
adapted  for  money  purposes.  Gold  has  ever  been  the 
money  of  the  rich,  silver  that  of  the  poor.  The  people 
want  silver  and  they  are  bound  to  have  it. ' ' 

"Do  you  consider  Mulhall  a  reliable  statistician?" 
inquired  the  editor. 

"None  better,"  said  the  witness.  "I  quote  him  fre- 
quently. ' ' 

'  'Well,  in  that  case, ' '  continued  the  editor,  '  'you  might 
correct  your  statement  that  silver  is  more  durable  as  coin 
than  gold,  just  to  keep  in  line  with  your  favorite  author- 
ity. Mulhall  states  that  gold  is  far  more  durable  in  coin 


SOUND  MONEY.  53 

than  is  silver.  This  is  what  he  says. ' '  Here  Mr.  Evans 
opened  Mulhall's  Dictionary  of  Statistics  and  read  this 
extract: 

"Gold  coin  loses  one  per  cent,  in  weight  in  fifty  years. 
Silver  coin  loses  one  per  cent,  of  its  weight  in  ten  years. 
Yearly  one  and  one-quarter  ton  of  gold  and  eighty-eight 
tons  of  silver  disappear  in  this  way. ' ' 

Coin  looked  confused  and  refused  to  believe  it.  *  'Mul- 
hall  is  in  error,"  he  declared.  "It  is  quite  impossible." 

"It  is  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  to  understand 
that,"  said  Chairman  Clench.  "I'm  treasurer  of  our 
union  and  I  have  some  of  the  union's  money  with  me  on 
its  way  to  bank,  so  I  can  show  you. ' '  He  took  a  bag 
containing  coin  from  his  pocket  and  selecting  a  gold  eagle 
and  ten  silver  dollars  he  continued:  '  'This  here  gold  piece 
is  worth,  to-day,  these  ten  silver  pieces.  Suppose  I  carry 
the  whole  lot  around  in  this  bag;  the  gold  piece,  which 
has  only  two-thirds  as  much  surface  as  each  of  the  silver 
ones,  has  only  two  sides  to  wear.  The  silver  ones  have 
twenty  sides  to  wear,  and  allowing  for  the  difference  in 
size  they  have  30  times  the  surface  to  get  ground  off  and 
worn  away  that  the  gold  coin  has. ' ' 

This  homely  blacksmith's  homely  illustration  in  sup- 
port of  the  statistical  expert's  statement  was  received  with 
a  round  of  applause. 

"Now,  Mr.  Coin,"  continued  the  editor,  "about  your 
claim  that  silver  has  been  the  money  of  the  people  ever 
since  the  dawn  of  history,  I  don't  believe  it,  and  no  more 
does  your  friend  Mulhall.  It  was  and  is  the  favorite  money 
of  half  civilized  people.  It  was  the  favorite  money  of  the 
most  civilized  nations  until  silver  was  produced  so  plenti- 
fully as  to  destroy  its  equalibrium  of  value  in  relation  to 
gold.  Which  are  the  nations  that  favor  silver  by  making 


54  SOUND  MONEY. 

it  their  standard?  Why,  China,  Japan,  Mexico,  Bolivia, 
Costa  Rica,  Guatemala,  Honduras,  Nicaragua,  Salvador, 
Colombia  and  Peru.  Do  you  want  the  United  States  to 
lower  herself  to  the  level  of  those  countries?" 

"How  about  India  and  Russia?"  asked  Coin. 

"Do  you  wish  to  degrade  American  labor  and  Ameri- 
can citizenship  to  the  level  of  India  and  Russia?"  inquired 
the  editor;  and  his  query  was  received  with  a  round  of 
applause  in  which  even  the  free  silver  workingmen  joined. 

"Moreover,"  he  continued,  "India  has  shut  the  doors 
of  her  mints  against  the  further  coinage  of  silver,  and 
Russia  has  just  issued  an  edict  which  permits  commercial 
contracts  to  be  made  upon  a  gold  basis.  It  looks  as  if 
she,  too,  were  getting  into  line,  doesn't  it?" 

"It  may  to  you,"  replied  Coin,  wearily.  "I  argue 
for  a  bimetallic  system  under  which  gold  and  silver  may 
walk  arm  in  arm  into  the  mints  as  bullion  and,  still  arm 
in  arm,  walk  out  again  as  coin;  each  dollar  exactly  the 
same  in  value  as  the  other  dollar.  I  point  with  pride  to 
the  double  standard  countries  in  which  this  is  possible — 
France,  Belgium,  Holland,  Spain,  Switzerland,  Greece, 
Cuba,  Italy,  Venezuela,  Haiti  and  Argentine. " 

A  titter  of  laughter  ran  through  the  audience  at  the 
mention  of  Argentine,  whose  fiat  paper  currency  was  the 
cause  of  Baring  Bros' .  failure,  whose  downfall  for  a  time 
threatened  to  engulf  Coin's  favorite  bugaboo,  England, 
and  would  have  done  so  if  the  Bank  of  England  had  not 
come  to  their  assistance  in  a  manner  which  violated  every 
precedent  of  record  since  the  establishment  of  that  mighty 
institution.  Taking  advantage  of  the  embarrassment  this 
snicker  caused  the  witness,  Editor  Evans  remarked: 

"Germany,  England,  Austro  -  Hungary,  British 
America,  Brazil,  Denmark,  Portugal,  Sweden,  Turkey, 


SO  UNO  MONE  Y.  55 

and  even  the  Negro  republic,  Liberia,  are  at  present  on  a 
gold  basis.  France,  while  nominally  a  bimetallic  coun- 
try, is  practically  on  a  gold  basis;  and  if  you  want  to 
find  it  out,  you'd  better  take  some  silver  bullion  to  her 
mint  and  see  how  much  free  coinage  you'll  get.  It's  non- 
sense to  talk  about  the  United  States  stemming  the  tide 
with  only  the  assistance  of  the  present  free  coinage  coun- 
tries. We'd  be  swamped  before  we  knew  where  all  our 
gold  had  gone  to. ' ' 

"One  subject  at  a  time,  Brother  Evans,"  suggested 
the  Chairman. 

"Yes;  we'll  get  to  that  later  on,"  said  Coin.  "Be- 
fore we  go  any  further — ' ' 

"Before  we  go  any  further  I  want  to  finish  what  I 
started  to  say  about  your  friend,  Mulhall,"  Evans  broke 
in.  "He  gives  a  table  of  the  total  stock  of  gold  and  sil- 
ver in  the  world  at  six  periods — from  1600  to  1890." 

* ' Much  comfort  that  will  give  you, ' '  sneered  Coin.  '  'I 
have  quoted  it  on  page  18  of  my  book." 

"Garbled  it,  you  mean,"  retorted  the  sturdy  editor. 
"Here  is  the  table,  with  the  values,  given  by  Mulhall  in 
pounds  sterling,  and  converted  into  dollars  for  the  con- 
venience of  plain  Americans  like  myslf.  It  shows  that  in 
the  year  1600  all  the  silver  in  the  world  was  valued  at 
$780,800,000  more  than  all  the  gold  in  the  world.  In 
1700  its  value  was  $i, 302, 960  more  than  all  the 
gold,  silver  having  increased  in  quantity  from  $1,346,- 
880,000  to  $2,196,000,000,  while  gold  had  increased  from 
$566,080,000  to  $893,040,000.  In  the  year  1800  the 
stock  of  gold  had  increased  to  $1,864,160,000,  and  silver 
to  $3,708,800,000,  an  excess  over  gold  of  $1,844,640,- 
ooo.  By  1848  gold  had  increased  to  $2,440,000,000  and 
silver  to  $4,723,840,000,  an  excess  over  gold  of  $2,283,- 


56  SO  UND  MONE  Y. 

200,000.  Then  came  the  enormous  gold  discoveries  in 
Australia  and  California,  with  the  result  that  by  1880 
the  stock  of  gold  had  increased  to  $5,328,960,000,  an 
increase  of  nearly  three  billions,  while  silver  only  in- 
creased $595,360,000,  or  to  $5,319,200,000,  giving  gold 
an  excess  in  value  over  silver  for  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  the  world  of  $9,760,000." 

"That  period  included  seven  years  of  the  time  of 
demonetization  in  which  John  Sherman  led  the  world  in 
1873,"  interrupted  Coin,  hotly,  with  an  attempt  at  bluster. 

"John  Sherman  didn't  do  anything  of  the  kind," 
replied  the  editor.  "I'm  primed  with  facts,  to-day,  to 
meet  the  whoppers  you've  been  telling,  and  you  can't 
bluff  me  down." 

"Good  enough,"  "Go  it,  Evans,  old  boy,"  and  sim- 
ilar cries  came  from  the  audience,  mingled  with  cheers 
and  applause  as  the  brainy  editor  and  the  self-appointed 
financial  Moses  confronted  each  other  with  defiance  in 
the  eyes  of  the  one  and  fear  in  the  eyes  of  the  other. 

1  'The  United  States  did  not  lead  the  way  in  demone- 
tization," continued  the  editor,  "and  you  know  it,  Mr. 
Coin,  as  well  as  I  do.  England  adopted  a  single  gold 
standard  in  1816.  Why  didn't  that  reduce  the  commer- 
cial ratio  of  the  value  of  silver  to  gold?  It  stood  at  15.28 
to  i  when  silver  ceased  to  be  redemption  money  in  Eng- 
land, yet  in  the  following  year  it  stood  at  15.11.  The  rea- 
son is  simple — if  England  didn't  want  silver  some  other 
nation  did,  and  the  one  fixed  law  which  governs  the  com- 
merce of  the  world  regulated  the  price  of  the  com- 
modity." 

"But  in  the  following  year,  1818,  it  had  gone  to  15.35, 
asserted  Coin.  "From  that  time  on,  owing  to  the  demone- 
itzation  of  silver  by  England,  the  ratio  between  the  two 


SOUND  MONEY.  57 

metals  began  steadily  to  increase  until  1873,  when  John 
Sherman  put  the  white  metal  on  the  toboggan  slide  and 
down  it  went. ' ' 

*  'That  statement  is  not  borne  out  by  the  ratio  table 
which  you  indorse  by  publishing  it  nor  by  the  facts  as 
given  by  Mulhall,"  said  the  editor,  cuttingly.  "Why 
don't  you  begin  with  the  year  1760  when  the  two  metals, 
with  a  ratio  of  14.14,  were  closer  together  than  at  any 
modern  period  for  which  we  can  obtain  reliable  statistics? 
In  1687  the  ratio  had  been  14.94,  so  that  by  1760  the  white 
metal  had  very  distinctly  appreciated  in  value.  By  1707 
silver's  value — always  measured,  like  any  other  commod- 
ity, in  gold,  you  will  observe,  had  fallen  from  14.94  to 
15.44.  Then  the  ratio  dodged  up  and  down  for  years 
until,  as  I  just  said,  by  1760  one  part  of  gold  would  only 
purchase  14. 14  parts  of  silver.  There  was  no  demoneti- 
zation to  cause  this  instability." 

"From  1687  to  1873,  nearly  two  centuries,"  broke  in 
Coin,  '  'the  variation  in  the  ratio  was  only  two  points." 

" Only  two  points,"  repeated  the  editor,  "You  talk 
as  if  this  were  a  mere  trifle.  Why,  man,  it  means  an 
increase  in  value  of  eleven  per  cent  on  every  grain  of  gold 
in  the  world."  Coin  looked  as  Billy  Patterson  did  after 
he  was  struck  by  that  notorious  person  whose  identity 
remains  an  unsolved  mystery  even  unto  this  very  day. 
"Adding  the  combined  stocks  of  gold  in  the  world  from 
1 700  to  1880,"  continued  the  editor,  "the  nearest  to  the 
period  for  which  I  can  readily  obtain  figures,  this  depreci- 
ation of  two  points  in  the  ratio  between  silver  and  gold 
makes  an  increase  in  the  value  of  the  yellow  metal  of,  in 
round  numbers,  eleven  hundred  and  fifty-eight  millions  of 
dollars.  Is  that  a  sum  of  money  to  be  dismissed  in  your 
airy  fashion,  Mr.  Coin?" 


58  SOUND  MONEY, 

Coin  made  no  attempt  to  reply.  Indeed,  no  reply 
was  possible  which  would  not  write  him  down,  in  the 
words  of  the  immortal  William,  ''an  ass." 

"What  accounts  for  the  state  of  facts  I  have  cited — and 
they  are  true  facts?"  Evans  went  on. 

''The  stock  of  each  metal  in  the  world,"  replied  Coin. 
"If  there  is  produced  ten  times  as  much  gold  as  silver, 
silver  will  be  worth  that  much  more  in  a  direct  ratio  with 
gold  and  vice  versa. ' ' 

' '  My  dear  young  friend, ' '  said  the  editor,  pityingly,  '  'do 
make  an  effort  to  learn  a  little  political  economy,  no  matter 
where  you  learn  it.  Supply  and  demand  govern  every- 
thing and  it  doesn't  matter  what  the  supply  amounts  to 
provided  there  is  a  demand  for  it.  For  instance,  from 
1821  to  1840  the  ratio  of  the  entire  stock  of  silver  to  the 
entire  stock  of  gold  in  the  world  was  33.  i  and  silver  was 
$1.20  per  ounce.  From  1881  to  1888  that  ratio  had  fallen 
to  1 8. 6.  If  your  theory  of  the  relative  value  of  the  two 
metals  is  correct  the  price  of  silver  should  have  been  $2. 14 
per  ounce.  Its  actual  price,  however,  was  97  cents  per 
ounce,  and  these  figures,  which  I  quote  from  Mulhall,  dis- 
pose of  your  contention  that,  taking  into  account  the 
world's  stocks  of  gold  and  silver  their  true  ratio  is 
15^  to  i." 

"I'll  meet  that  statement  later  on,"  said  Coin. 

'  'Very  well.  Now,  to  continue  what  I  was  saying 
about  demonetization,"  resumed  the  editor,  "Germany 
was  the  second  country  to  adopt  that  policy.  That  great 
statesman,  Bismarck,  had  not  failed  to  grasp  England's 
reasons  for  so  doing.  He  had  seen  her  drawing  her  bal- 
ances in  gold  from  the  nations  of  the  earth,  year  after 
year,  and  loaning  it  back  to  them  at  interest.  He  had 
long  determined  that  his  beloved  fatherland  should  at 


SOUND  MONEY. 

least  participate  in  this  profitable  arrangement,  if  it  could 
not  monopolize  it,  at  the  first  favorable  opportunity.  That 
opportunity  came  in  1871  when,  after  the  German  armies 
had  swept  the  empire  out  of  France,  the  enormous  war 
indemnity  became  due  from  the  vanquished  to  the  victors. 
Bismarck  at  once  announced  that  the  country  would  adopt 
gold  as  its  standard  and  as  soon  as  the  legislative  arrange- 
ments and  internal  union  were  completed  this  was  done 
in  1872.  Therefore  Germany  was  practically  on  a  gold 
basis  in  1871 ,  two  years  before  John  Sherman  was  guilty  of 
that  'horrible  crime,'  which  seems  only  to  have  been  dis- 
covered years  after  it  was  committed.  In  1873  it  did  not 
matter  a  brass  farthing  to  silver  whether  it  or  gold  were  the 
standard  in  the  United  States,  for  there  was  practically 
none  of  either  metal  in  circulation.  Our  total  stock  of  gold 
was $135, 000,000  and  we  had  $17, ooo, ooo  of  silver  in  subsi- 
diary, light-weight  coinage — token  money  with  an  intrinsic 
value  considerably  less  than  its  face,  but  still  at  a  prem- 
ium. Why  was  this,  Mr.  Coin?" 

"Because  the  war  had  forced  us  to  a  paper  basis 
and  we  could  not  resume  specie  payments,"  replied 
Coin. 

"That  is  partly  true,"  returned  Evans,  "but  like 
nearly  everything  else  you  say  it  isn't  entirely  so.  It  isn't 
the  whole  economic  truth.  The  fact  is  that  wherever  you 
have  two  kinds  of  money,  one  cheap,  as  our  greenbacks 
were  then  and  for  twelve  years  before,  and  a  dear  kind, 
like  gold  at  a  premium  and  silver  too,  at  that  time,  for 
there  wasn't  a  silver  dollar  in  circulation,  the  cheap 
money  will  drive  the  dear  money  into  hiding.  The  selfish- 
ness of  man  will  hoard  it  away  and  give  to  his  neighbor 
in  exchange  for  his  labor  and  commodities  the  cheapest 
money  he  can  make  him  take. ' ' 


60  SOUND  MONEY. 

"I  don't  admit  that.  It  doesn't  hold  good  with  our 
silver  dollar  to-day,  though  its  commercial  value  is  only 
51  cents,"  said  Coin. 

"For  a  very  good  reason,"  returned  the  editor.  "If 
you  don't  like  your  silver  dollar,  your  Uncle* Sammy 
will  obligingly  swap  you  a  gold  one  for  it.  So  long 
as  he  stands  ready  to  do  that  you  are  not  very  eager 
for  the  gold.  I^et  him  announce  that  after  a  certain  date 
he  will  cease  to  do  so,  and  then  see  how  fast  you'll  get  a 
move  on  you  for  the  sub-treasury." 

"That's  just  the  point,"  said  Coin;  "that's  where  I 
wanted  to  get  you.  Don't  you  see  that  if  we  had  free 
coinage  of  both  gold  and  silver,  on  equal  terms,  we  could 
fix  the  ratio  at  16  to  i,  or  anywhere  else  we  pleased? 
Then  each  dollar,  gold  or  silver,  would  be  equally  worth 
100  cents." 

"For  how  long,  Sonny?"  howled  a  great  big  fellow 
in  the  audience.  "I'm  a  circus  man,"  he  went  on,  "and 
I'm  here  with  Ringling  Bros',  big  show.  I've  traveled 
half  over  the  world  with  the  white  tents,  and  I've  picked 
up  a  little  hoss  sense,  p'r'aps  because  I'm  so  much 
with  hosses.  Now,  I'll  tell  you  what  I'd  do  in  a 
holy  minute  if  Uncle  Sam  was  fool  enough  to  coin  all 
the  silver  anybody  chose  to  bring  him,  giving  a  gold  dol- 
lar for  every  412^/2  grains  of  standard  silver:  I'm  worth 
$40,000,  and  I'd  make  a  break  for  Siberia,  or  Germany, 
or  Mexico,  or  South  America — any  foreign  country 
where  they  mine  silver.  I'd  buy  $40,000  worth  of  it, 
bring  it  back  here  and  swap  it  with  Uncle  Sam  on  that 
basis.  I'd  make  money.  And  I  reckon  there's  thou- 
sands of  other  men  just  as  smart  as  I  am." 

"You  forget,  my  friend,"  said  Coin,  as  the  big  fellow 
sat  down,  "that  the  market  price  of  silver  would  rise  im- 


SO  UND  MONE  Y.  61 

mediately  we  opened  our  mints  to  its  unlimited  coinage." 
'  'Would  it?"  said  Evans.  '  'There,  is  almost  six  billions 
of  silver  in  the  world.  The  gold  reserve  in  our  treasury  is 
under  one  hundred  millions,  and  it  wouldn't  take  three 
days  to  bring  it  down  to  nothing.  Why,  men  would  be 
waiting  with  silver  to  exchange  for  every  ounce  of  gold 
that  came  in  for  coinage,  like  the  line  at  the  box  office 
of  a  theatre.  With  such  a  demand  what  would  hap- 
pen? Would  the  price  of  silver  rise?  Not  at  all.  It 
would  send  gold  up  instead.  This  would  be  the  dump- 
ing ground  for  as  much  silver  as  we  could  purchase 
with  gold.  That's  what." 

By  this  time  the  audience  was  enthusiastically  in 
accord  with  the  hard-headed  editor.  They  recognized  that 
he  was  talking  for  principle,  while  his  opponent  was 
talking  for — what  there  was  in  it  for  him.  They  cheered 
Evans  again,  and  thus  emboldened  he  spent  a  few  min- 
utes selecting  books  and  memoranda  at  the  table,  and 
after  repeated  shouts  of  "go  on,"  ''hit  him  again," 
"you've  got  him  on  the  run,"  etc.,  he  resumed  thus: 

"I  want  to  say  something  about  this  'money  of  the  peo- 
ple" that  Mr.  Coin  says  the  people  will  have — silver.  The 
money  of  the  people — the  masses,  is  the  money  that  is 
worth  100  cents  in  the  dollar  365  days  in  the  year.  Not  a 
dollar  that  is  worth  50  cents  to-day  and  goes  up  to  55  cents 
to-morrow  because  Japan  has  licked  China  out  of  tyer 
boots  and  is  going  to  make  her  pay  150  millions  for  the 
fun  she's  been  having.  Or  a  dollar  that  is  worth  100 
cents  to-day  because  the  government  holds  it  at  par  by 
main  force.  There  might  be  an  end  to  that  some  fine 
day,  and  that's  what  the  foreigners  were  scared  of  when 
they  sold  out  their  railroad  and  other  stocks  and  bonds 
and  broke  down  our  markets  for  securities. 


62  SOUND  MONEY. 

1  'But  apart  from  other  things  that  might  be  said  about 
silver,  while  it  may  be  the  'money  of  the  people,'  in  less 
civilized  countries  than  this,  it  certainly  isn't  popular  in 
this  progressive  land.  Folks  don't  like  it.  If  a  man 
changes  a  $10  note  for  you  or  pays  you  a  $10  debt  or  wage 
he  always  says  'Sorry  I  can't  give  you  anything  but  sil- 
ver,' or  'I  know  you  hate  to  take  silver,  but  I  haven't 
any  currency,'  or  something  of  that  sort.  It  isn't  that 
way  with  gold.  That  is  the  ideal  coin.  It  isn't  bulky,  it 
loses  less  by  wear  and  tear  than  silver,  as  we  have  seen, 
and  its  value  is  the  same  in  every  country  under  the  sun. 

"According  to  the  treasurer's  report  for  1894,  there 
was,  July  i,  $620,026,413  in  gold  coin  in  the  United  States 
and  $499,103,577  in  circulation,  leaving  in  the  treasury 
$120,922,836.  What  about  the  money  of  the  people— 
the  daddy  dollars — on  the  same  date?  There  were  just 
109,210,342  of  them  in  circulation,  and  513,880,682  of 
them  lying  idle  in  the  vaults  of  the  treasury.  Why 
weren't  they  out  hustling  around  and  earning  their 
keep  as  the  gold  was  doing?  Why  weren't  they  hopping 
around,  raising  prices  and  giving  employment  to  the  men 
out  of  work  as  you  and  your  friends  claim  free  coinage 
will  do?  What  were  they  doing,  loafing  there  in  the  treasury 
vaults  while  the  people  were  fairly  yearning  for  them? 

"I'll  tell  you,  friend  Coin,  if  you  won't  let  the  state- 
ment hurt  your  feelings — the  people  didn't  want  the 
money  which  you  claim  is  especially  theirs  so  long  as  they 
could  get  paper  money  or  gold  coin  to  use. 

"Well,  that's  all  I  want  to  say  at  present,"  and  as  he 
took  his  seat  the  speaker  mopped  the  perspiration  off  his 
forehead  and  the  audience  cheered  him. 

No  vSooner  had  the  aggressive  editor  taken  his  seat  than 
Commissioner  Rafferty,  who  had  been  aching  for  an 


SOUND  MONEY.  63 

opportunity  to  make  himself  conspicuous,  arose  and 
addressing  the  chairman,  said: 

"Our  editorial  friend,  in  giving  his  statistics  from  Mul- 
hall  and  elsewhere,  left  this  commission  and  this  audience 
in  the  dark  with  regard  to  the  figures  for  1890.  If  there 
is  any  gentleman  present  who  is  able  to  supply  that  evi- 
dently intentional  omission,  I,  for  one,  would  feel  obliged 
to  him." 

'  'The  commissioner  is  quite  correct, ' '  said  Coin.  '  'The 
figures  for  1890,  after  seventeen  long  years  of  dishonor 
and  degradation  of  silver  following  demonetization,  tell 
flatly  against  the  argument  of  Editor  Evans.  I  will  read 
them." 

Selecting  one  from  a  number  of  books  which  he  had 
placed  on  the  reporters'  table  he  was  about  to  begin  read- 
ing the  figures,  showing  the  stocks  of  gold  and  silver  in 
the  world  in  1890  when  he  was  interrupted  by  the  circus 
man,  who  arose  and  said: 

"I/et  the  chairman  read  off  the  figures.  Then  we'll 
know  whether  we're  getting  straight  facts  or  whether 
you've  monkeyed  with  them. ' '  The  audience  roared,  and 
Coin,  with  a  great  show  of  virtuous  indignation,  handed 
a  copy  of  Mulhall's  dictionary,  opened  at  the  table,  to- 
gether with  a  memorandum  giving  the  conversion  into 
dollars,  to  Chairman  Clench,  who  read  out  the  figures  as 
follows: 

"Gold  in  the  world,  1890,  $6,026,800,000.  Silver  in 
the  world,  $5,919,440,000  Excess  of  gold  over  silver, 
$107,360,000." 

"There!"  cried  Coin,  triumphantly,  "what  did  I  tell 
you?  You  see  that  gold  has  overtaken  silver,  and  accord- 
ing to  natural  law  the  more  there  is  of  anything  on  the 
market  the  cheaper  that  thing  must  become.  Those  fig- 


64  SOUND  MONEY. 

ures  prove,  if  they  prove  anything,  that  silver  is  again 
becoming  more  precious,  when  measured  in  gold,  and  the 
only  thing  it  needs  to  restore  it  to  its  old  value  as  a  money 
metal  is  the  privilege  of  free  and  equal  coinage  with  gold. ' ' 
"I  understand,"  said  Chairman  Clench,  "that  the 
production  of  silver  has  been  very  much  shut  off  in  this 
country,  at  any  rate,  since  1891.  Is  that  correct?" 

"It  is,"  replied  Coin.  "Silver  has  not  paid  to  mine 
it;  so,  after  being  brought  to  ruin's  brink  by  the  aband- 
onment of  such  silver  coinage  as  we  had  under  the 
Bland- Allison  act  of  1878,  and  the  Sherman  act  of  1890, 
the  mines  were  mostly  closed  in  1893,  and  thousands  of 
men  engaged  in  them,  and  in  the  smelting  works,  and  in 
transportation,  were  thrown  out  of  employment." 

"Do  I  understand  you  that  the  mines  were  being 
actually  worked  at  a  loss?" 

"You  do,  sir;"  replied  Coin.  "Mine-owners  found 
that  they  could  not  pay  the  wages  of  American  labor 
and  were  obliged  to  close  down." 

'  'Your  statements  are  very  much  at  variance  with  the 
report  of  theDirector  of  the  Mint  for  1894,"  said  Editor 
Evans,  producing  the  document  and  opening  it  at  pages 
292  and  293.  "We  find,"  he  continued,  "that  during 
1891,  '2  and  '3  the  world  produced  of  silver  $584,258,000 
and  of  gold  $434,176,000  or,  in  value,  $150,082,000  more 
silver  than  gold.  So  that,  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Coin, 
according  to  natural  law,  'the  more  there  is  of  any  com- 
modity on  the  market  the  cheaper  it  must  become. '  I 
add  to  that,  'Provided  that  the  demand  does  not  equal  the 
supply.'  That  is  the  situation  of  silver  in  a  nutshell,  and 
I  don't  see  anything  in  the  figures  to  encourage  him. 
He  admits  that  the  production  of  silver  has  been  greatly 
curtailed  in  this  country. ' ' 


SOUND  MONEY.  65 

"And  more  so  in  foreign  countries, "  interrupted  Coin. 
'  'They  have  to  a  great  extent  stopped  producing,  and  are 
taking  away  our  silver  from  us  at  their  own  price.  Free 
coinage  would  stop  that,  because  our  price  would  be  one 
part  of  gold  for  16  parts  of  silver." 

A  feeble  cheer  from  the  now  despondent  silverites 
greeted  this  assertion. 

"  Of  the  whole  silver  product  of  the  world  in  1891-2-3," 
answered  the  editor,  calmly,  "we  produced  $233, 093, 200. 
All  other  countries  combined  produced  $351,1 64, 800.  If 
you  or  anybody  else  believes  that  it  cost  $2  an  ounce  to 
mine  this  vast  amount  of  silver,  as  you  have  publicly 
stated,  what  must  you  think  of  the  lunatics  who  in  three 
years  have  mined  this  enormous  quantity — $584,258,000 
worth,  for  which  they  received  the  average  price  of  88)^ 
cents  an  ounce?' ' 

'  'They  were  hoping  for  better  times  and  the  recogni- 
tion of  silver's  righteous  claims  by  this  Nation,"  was 
Coin's  answer. 

"I  am  glad  he  doesn't  claim  that  they  were  doing  it 
from  motives  of  philanthropy  or  the  good  of  their  health, ' ' 
retorted  the  editor  sarcastically.  "Either  their  losses 
reached  the  stupendous  total  of  $652,420,433,  according  to 
Coin's  statement  of  the  cost  of  production,  or  that  gentle- 
man is  worthy  of  being  a  lineal  descendant  of  Ananias  and 
Sapphira,  his  wife." 

When  brought  face  to  face  with  this  palpable  absurdity 
Coin  had  at  first  flushed  as  red  as  fire,  and  from  that  gradu- 
ally faded  to  a  ghastly,  greenish  white  as  the  merciless 
exposure  went  on.  The  cheers  of  the  audience  when  the 
fighting  editor  concluded  warned  Coin  that  he  must  make 
some  desperate  effort  to  wriggle  out  of  the  plight  into 
which  his  reckless  misstatements  had  landed  him.  Bluff, 


66  SOUND  MONEY. 

as  usual,  was  his  last  ditch  and  he  resolved  to  fight  till 
the  last  gasp  if  he  had  to  die  there. 

"I  never  made  that  statement,"  he  declared  with  a 
face  of  marble  and  eyes  gleaming  like  coals  of  fire.  "It 
was  made  by  other  people  and  I  am  not  responsible  for  it." 

"That  is  just  the  defense  I  expected,"  said  the  editor, 
in  an  aside  to  the  audience  which  was  on  the  qui  vive  to 
see  how  the  matter  would  culminate.  Turning  to  the  now 
utterly  discredited  would-be  financier,  he  asked: 

"Did  you  ever  publish  any  book  besides  your  'invalu- 
able hand  book,'  which  you  so  frequently  advertise?" 

'  'I  did — several, ' '  was  the  reply.  '  'I  wrote  the  'Finan- 
cial School,'  which  has  made  more  converts  to  free  silver 
than  all  the  other  literature  and  speech-making  combined. 
I  also  wrote " 

"That's  enough,"  interrupted  Evans.  "You  don't 
need  to  advertise  the  rest  of  your  vicious  trash  to  this 
intelligent  audience — they're  onto  you  now  and  you  can't 
fool  them  any  more.  This  is  the  book,  I  believe?"  and 
he  held  up  a  copy  of  the  now  notorious  "School, ' '  in  which 
prominent  men  and  their  opinions  are  libeled  by  whole- 
sale." 

"That's  it,"  admitted  Coin,  looking  fearful,  yet  still 
defiant.  Desperate  would  better  describe  his  appearance, 
perhaps. 

"You  consider  yourself  a  man  of  judgment,  do  you 
not?"  inquired  the  editor. 

"I  do,  and  so  do  millions  of  my  fellow  citizens," 
Coin  answered,  once  more  swelling  up  with  his  accus- 
tomed bumptiousness. 

"Have  you  ever  given  any  practical  attention  to  sil- 
ver mining?" 

"A  great  deal.     I  consider  myself  an  expert." 


SOUND  MONEY.  67 

"Then,  if  that  is  the  case,  when  you  go  home  sit 
down  with  a  copy  of  your  book  and  get  acquainted  with 
the  things  you  have  written.  Especially  study  page  74, 
whereon  you  say  this: 

"  'It  is  estimated  by  all  men  of  judgment  who  have 
given  practical  attention  to  mining,  that  the  silver  in 
existence  has  cost  not  less  than  $2.00  per  ounce,  and 
many  put  it  much  higher. '  ' 

The  editor  of  The  Economist,  with  this  parting  shot, 
resumed  his  seat  amid  a  perfect  ovation  of  cheers.  He 
had  gone  out  single-handed  against  a  past  master  in  the 
arts  of  false  logic,  sophistry  and  falsification,  and  with  the 
tiny  needle  of  truth  had  punctured  the  mammoth  gas  bag 
of  deceit  which  Coin  had  inflated  with  falsified  figures 
and  the  breath  of  untruth. 

As  for  Coin,  he  looked  like  a  man  on  the  verge  of 
mental  and  physical  collapse.  Never  since  he  was  born 
had  he  received  such  a  drubbing,  and,  seeing  the  senti- 
ment of  the  audience  turned  completely  against  him,  he 
was  in  despair. 

"I'll  get  a  favorable  report  or  make  them  straddle  be- 
fore I'm  through,"  he  muttered,  "no  matter  what  effect 
this  exposure  may  have  on  public  opinion.  That's  what  I 
contracted  to  do,  and  it  isn't  my  fault  if  the  facts  are  against 
me. ' '  But  he  was  glad  when  the  investigation  was  de- 
clared adjourned  to  the  next  day  at  the  same  place. 


68  SOUND  MONEY. 


CHAPTER  III. 

MORE   COLOSSAL  FRAUD. 

The  third  day's  session  of  Labor's  Commission  on 
Coinage  was  ushered  in  with  gray  clouds  and  every  prom- 
ise of  an  April  shower,  and  before  10  o'clock  the  rain  had 
begun  to  fall.  That,  however,  proved  no  deterrent  to 
the  crowds  who  thronged  to  Plasterer's  Hall  before  9 
o'clock  in  the  hope  of  getting  a  good  seat  from  which  to 
view  the  speakers  and  listen  to  the  arguments  advanced. 

Dispirited  by  the  complete  rout  of  Harvey  Coin  at  the 
hands  of  the  men  who  had  proved  that  not  only  did  they 
know  and  appreciate  the  facts,  but  also  that  they  were  able 
so  to  present  them  as  to  dispel  the  fog  of  fiction  in  which 
the  silver  argument  was  enveloped,  a  number  of  prominent 
silver  advocates  positively  refused  to  appear  before  the 
commission.  To  be  plain,  these  gentlemen  talked  very 
well  for  buncombe  in"  Congress,  or  on  the  stump  where 
there  was  little  or  no  chance  of  their  being  refuted.  But 
when  it  came  to  a  running  debate  with  such  men  as  Evans 
and  Ewing  had  proven  themselves,  and  with  the  moral 
cetainty  in  their  minds  that  the  friends  of  honest  money 
had  others  of  similar  caliber  in  reserve,  they  decided 
that  discretion  was  the  better  part  of  valor  and  left  their 
paid  attorney  to  meet  the  enemy  alone.  This,  too,  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  they  had  been  summoned  to 
Chicago  by  wire  for  the  explicit  purpose  of  making  a 
grand  display  of  strength. 

The  hall  was  jammed  to  its  utmost  capacity  long 
before  the  proceedings  opened,  and  when  the  chairman's 


SOUND  MONEY.  69 

gavel  had  commanded  silence  Coin  was  smiling  and  *  'still 
in  the  ring. ' '  His  exhibition  of  assurance,  notwithstand- 
ing the  crushing  defeats  he  had  sustained,  was  something 
wonderful.  Being  invited  to  resume  his  evidence,  he 
said : 

"The  unanswerable  argument  of  the  friends  of  the 
white  metal  is  the  fact  of  its  stability  prior  to  demoneti- 
zation and  the  continuous  fall  of  silver  since  1873.  Eng^ 
land  demonetized  silver  in  1816,  but  as  Germany,  France 
and  the  Latin  Union,  and  the  United  States  had  their 
mints  open  to  the  free  coinage  of  the  metal,  the  demand 
thus  created  was  sufficient  to  maintain  its  parity  with  gold, 
and  the  action  of  England  had  no  effect  on  the  price  of 
silver.  The  United  States  closed  its  mints  to  silver  and 
made  gold  the  sole  measurement  of  values  in  February, 
1873.  Germany  followed  suit  in  July,  1873,  and  the 
action  of  these  two  large  nations  caused  a  drop  in  the 
commercial  value  of  silver,  of  2  per  cent. ,  by  the  end  of 
that  year.  France  and  the  Latin  Union  closed  their  mints 
to  the  free  coinage  of  silver  in  January,  1874,  and  by  the 
end  of  that  year  silver,  as  measured  in  gold,  had  declined 
4  per  cent. ' ' 

"I'd  like  to  ask  the  gentleman  a  question,"  inter- 
rupted Editor  Evans,  who  was  again  in  attendance  and 
occupying  a  front  seat. 

"Certainly,  Brother  Evans,"  said  Coin.  "What 
troubles  you  now?" 

"I  can't  understand,"  was  the  reply,  "the  motive 
which  actuated  England,  Germany,  France,  the  United 
States  and  the  Latin  Union  to  stop  coining  silver.  You 
have  stated,  I  believe,  publicly,  that  when  we  demonetized 
silver  we  destroyed  one-half  of  our  money  of  ultimate 
redemption.  Is  that  true?' ' 


70  SOUND  MONEY. 

"I  have  said  so  and  repeat  it,"  answered  Coin,  who 
tried  in  vain  to  see  what  the  wily  editor  was  driving  at. 

"Then  Germany  and  the  rest  of  those  nations  did  pre- 
cisely the  same  thing,  did  they  not?" 

"They  did." 

"Can  you  conceive  of  such  men  as  Bismarck,  Wad- 
dington,  Gambetta,  John  Sherman  and  the  other  great 
statesmen  of  that  day  taking  a  leap  in  the  dark?"  inquired 
the  editor.  ' '  Do  you  think  they  were  all  bribed  or  all  idiots , 
and  that  you  and  your  silver-crank,  populistic  and  silver 
mine  owning  friends  are  fitted  to  teach  such  men  as  those 
statesmanship?" 

"On  this  particular  point,  yes,"  said  Coin  boldly. 

"You  perhaps  consider  Jerry  Simpson  the  equal  of 
Gambetta  and  Senator  Peffertbepeerof  Fuerst  Bismarck ! 
Well,  opinions  differ,"  and  the  editor  began  turning  over 
the  pages  of  a  small,  cloth-covered  book. 

"There  was  a  conspiracy  of  the  gold  bugs  against  sil- 
ver," asserted  Coin,  "and  that  accounts  for  many  things 
you  can't,  because  you  won't,  understand." 

"It  wouldn't  be  conducive  to  your  health  to  insinuate 
in  the  presence  of  a  German  or  a  Frenchman  that  either 
Bismarck,  Gambetta  or  Waddington  had  ever  accepted  a 
bribe  from  the  gold  bugs,  as  you  call  them,  to  betray 
their  country  by  wiping  out  one-half  of  its  money," 
retorted  Evans,  impatient  at  the  silly  charge  conveyed  in 
Coin's  remark.  "This  little  book,"  he  resumed,  "is  the 
report  of  the  Monetary  Commission  of  1876,  of  which 
Senator  John  P.  Jones  was  chairman — the  favorite  son  of 
Nevada,  that  magnificent  state  which,  with  a  population 
considerably  smaller  than  an  average  ward  in  Chicago,  is 
still  represented  by  two  members  in  the  United  States 
Senate. 


SOUND  MONEY.  71 

"At  the  time  this  report  was  written  recent  events 
were  too  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  people  to  make  it  safe 
for  any  public  man  to  be  guilty  of  those  'improvements' 
on  facts  and  figures,  dates  and  history,  with  which  it  is 
now  the  custom  of  its  advocates  to  bolster  up  the  free  sil- 
ver propaganda.  In  this  report  will  be  found  the  true 
reason  why  the  nations  demonetized  silver.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  in  the  twenty  years  prior  to  1870  the 
production  of  silver  had  increased  with  wonderful  rapidity. 
Taking  the  figures  from  the  report  of  the  secretary  of  the 
treasury  for  1894,  I  find  that  in  the  period  from  1851  to 
1855  the  world  had  produced  142,442,000  ounces  of  fine 
silver.  From  1856  to  1860  this  output  increased  to  145,- 
477,142;  from  1861  to  1865  the  production  jumped  up  to 
177,099,862,  and  from  1866  to  1870  it  went  to  215,257,- 
914 — an  increase  in  the  fourth  5-year  period  of  72,814,928 
ounces.  Nor  was  this  all.  New  discoveries  had  been 
made  which  were  turning  out  silver  by  the  ton,  and  the 
world  naturally  became  alarmed.  Some  people  were  even 
afraid  that  silver  would  soon  be  as  plentiful  as  copper. 
In  his  report,  Senator  Jones,  who  was  chairman  of  the 
commission,  remember,  says  this: 

"  'It  may  be  stated  that  in  1873  a  new  body  of  paying 
ore  was  discovered  in  one  of  the  mines  of  the  Comstock 
lode  in  Nevada.  Similar  bodies  of  nearly  equal  extent 
had  been  previously  discovered  and  exhausted  in  the 
South  American  silver  lodes  and  in  the  Comstock  lode 
without  attracting  universal  attention  or  causing  universal 
fear  that  the  commerce  of  the  world  was  about  to  be  deluged 
with  a  flood  of  silver,  but  in  the  present  instance,  through 
persistent  and  infectious  exaggeration  in  respect  to  the 
richness  of  the  new  ore  body,  the  most  visionary  expecta- 
tions and  unwarranted  fears  became  universally  epidemic. ' 


72  SO  UND  MONE  Y. 

"Thus,"  repeated  the  editor,  as  he  handed  the  report  to 
Commissioner  Rafferty,  ''the  tremendous  increase  in  the 
output  of  silver  from  the  United  States  attracted  universal 
attention  and  caused  universal  fear  that  the  commerce  of 
the  world  was  about  to  be  deluged  with  a  flood  of  silver! 
That  is  the  reason  why  the  nations  demonetized  silver. 
This  is  why  silver  had  already,  in  1873,  begun  to  fall  in 
price!" 

'  'What  gold  bug  is  it  that  makes  this  statement?' '  asked 
Rafferty,  who  had  been  somewhat  inattentive. 

'  'The  statement  does  not  come  from  a  gold  bug,  but  is 
an  admission  by  John  P.  Jones,  the  free  silver  representa- 
tive of  Nevada  in  the  United  States  Senate.  The  state- 
ment that  the  demonetization  of  silver  was  secretly  ac- 
complished in  this  country  is  a  falsehood!  The  matter 
was  debated  at  length  in  both  branches  of  Congress; 
among  those  who  took  part  in  the  discussion  being  Senator 
Stewart,  the  holder  of  the  international  championship 
silver  belt  for  speech-making  under  contract  by  the  yard, 
mile  or  league. ' ' 

"Senator  Jones  says,  in  the  very  report  you  have 
quoted,  that  the  fears  expressed  by  the  world  of  an  over- 
production of  silver  were  groundless,"  interrupted  Coin. 

"So  he  does,"  replied  Editor  Evans,  "but  with  what 
degree  of  candor?  From  1871  to  1875  the  production  in- 
creased from  215,257,914  ounces,  in  the  previous  five 
years,  to  316,585,069.  From  1876  to  1880  it  rose  to  393,- 
878,009,  and  from  1881  to  1885  to  460,019,722  ounces— 
an  increase  of  over  100  per  cent  in  30  years!" 

"Gold  production  also  increased  enormously  in  the 
same  period  and  more  than  kept  pace,"  said  Coin.  "In 
the  period  from  1841  to  1850  the  output  of  gold  was 
17,605,018  ounces.  In  1849  the  great  discoveries  and 


SOUND  MONEY.  73 

development  began,  so  that  from  1851  to  1855  32,061,621 
ounces  was  produced.  From  1856  to  1860  the  amount 
was  32,431,312  ounces;  from  1861  to  1865  it  was  29,747,- 
913;  from  1866  to  1870  it  was  31,350,430,  and  in  the  next 
five  years  it  dropped  off  to  27,955,068.  From, 1876  to 
1880  the  amount  was  27,715,550  ounces,  and  from  1881 
to  1885,  23,973,773.  ^From  1886  to  1890  it  rose  again  to 
27,298,095  ounces,  and  from  1891  to  1893  it  was  21,002,- 
265.  From  1853  to  1893  this  gives  us  the  enormous  total 
or  253,526,027  ounces  of  gold  produced  by  the  world. 
Now,  sir,"  he  concluded  with  a  ring  of  triumph  in  his 
voice,  "I'd  like  you  to  explain  to  this  audience  where  on 
earth  the  over  production  of  silver  comes  in  in  the  face  of 
this  avalanche  of  gold;  and  how  it  was  that  silver  main- 
tained the  ratio  so  closely  from  1851  to  1873  '  " 

"There  isn't  any  difficulty  in  doing  that,"  replied  Ev- 
ans, calmly,  '  'provided  one  knows  some  of  the  rudiments 
of  political  economy  and  has  some  knowledge  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  world's  commerce  during  the  last  half  century. 
The  output  of  silver  for  the  period  you  have  named,  1851- 
1893,  amounted  to  2,846,982,718  ounces.  Now,  sir,  I 
will  answer  your  question  fully  and  completely: 

"Nothing  on  earth,  short  of  that  enormous  gold  produc- 
tion of  two  hundred  and  fifty-three  and  a  half  millions  of 
ounces,  could  have  prevented  the  nearly  three  billions  of 
ounces  of  silver  from  being  classed,  in  relation  to  gold,  as 
something  a  little  more  precious  than  pig  lead! ' '  (Applause. ) 

'  'To  make  this  statement  apparent  suppose  that  the 
gold  production  had  remained  at  the  average  of  the  pre- 
vious fifty  years,  or  761,871  ounces  per  annum,  and  this 
deluge  of  silver,  67,785,302  ounces  per  annum,  had  flood- 
ed the  world !  What  must  have  been  the  inevitable  re- 
sult ?  Either  the  appreciation  of  gold  or  the  cheapening 


74  SO  UND  MONE  Y. 

of  silver,  whichever  way  you  choose  to  put  it,  to  an  un- 
heard-of ratio." 

The  audience  cheered  lustily,  for  if  there  is  any  one 
thing  in  this  discussion  which  the  free  coinage  people 
have  juggled  with  more  than  another  it  is  this  matter  of 
ratio  and  production.  Coin  looked  right  poorly  when 
the  editor  got  through,  but  managed  to  say: 

"I  thought  you  told  us  yesterday  that  the  supply  did 
not  matter  so  long  as  there  was  a  demand  ? ' ' 

"So  I  did,"  returned  the  editor,  "but  where  the  na- 
tion would  the  demand  come  from  under  such  circum- 
stances as  those  ?  Who  would  take  silver  at  any  price  ? 
Even  the  savages  of  the  dark  continent  would  refuse  to 
wear  it  as  rings  in  their  noses  on  the  ground  that  it  was 
too  cheap." 

"How  do  you  account  for  the  fact  that,  according  to 
Mulhall,  in  1848  there  were  31  tons  of  silver  to  i  ton  of 
gold  in  the  world;  in  1880  only  18  tons  of  silver  to  i  ton 
of  gold,  and  in  1890  the  same  proportion  ?  "  asked  Coin 
with  rather  more  spirit. 

'  'What  has  that  got  to  do  with  my  proposition?  You 
talk  of  31  tons  to  i,  but  the  case  I'm  supposing  had  it 
not  been  for  the  increase  of  gold,  would  have  been  88.95 
of  silver  to  i  of  gold  and  a  continuous  production  at  this 
ratio  for  42  years!  I  don't  know  but  what  people  might 
be  justified  in  following  Mr.  Ewing's  suggestion  and  rais- 
ing a  howl  for  the  free  coinage  of  copper  under  those  cir- 
cumstances. Now,  will  you  be  quiet?' '  and  the  good  nat- 
ured  editor  laughed  heartily. 

"No,  I'll  not,"  replied  Coin  doggedly  and  with  em- 
phasis. "I  know  I'm  right  even  though  you  seem  to 
have  picked  out  more  telling  statistics  than  mine.  Mul- 
hall gives  the  table  of  the  tons  of  silver  in  proportion  to 


SOUND  MONEY.  75 

gold,  from  which  I  have  just  quoted.  It  shows  that  in 
1600-20  there  were  27.7  tons  to  i,  that  the  ratio  stood  at 
1 2.  i  to  i  and  that  silver  was  worth  $1.54  per  ounce.  A 
hundred  years  later  the  proportion  was  34. 3  tons  of  silver 
to  i  of  gold,  the  commercial  ratio  was  15.1  and  the  price 
$1.24.  In  1800-20  there  were  32.2  tons  of  silver  to  i  of 
gold,  the  ratio  was  15.3  and  the  price  $1.22.  In  1821-40 
the  proportion  was  33.1,  ratio  15.6  and  price  $1.20.  In 
1841-60  the  proportion  was  31,  the  ratio  unchanged  at 
15.6  and  the  price  $1.20.  In  1861-70  it  had  fallen  to 
22.6  yet  the  ratio  did  not  change.  It  was  15.6,  and  the 
price  was  also  the  same.  In  1871-80  the  proportion  had 
dropped  to  18.6  and  the  ratio  advanced  over  a  point  while 
the  price  was  $1.12.  Those  facts  can  not  be  explained 
on  any  other  hypothesis  than  that  the  mints  of  the  world 
were  open  to  silver  and  it  was  freely  coined.  That  is 
what  held  the  parity  between  the  two  metals  for  nearly 
300  years. ' ' 

''Your  hypothesis  does  not  hold  water  when  the 
searchlight  of  facts  is  applied  to  it,"  said  Editor  Evans. 
"Moreover,  those  facts  would  not  be  appreciated  by  one 
man  in  a  thousand  even  though  he  had  the  statistics 
spread  in  front  of  him  unless  he  had  some  knowledge  of 
the  commercial  history  of  the  world  and  the  facts  concern- 
ing trade  development  with  oriental  countries. 

"In  the  first  place,  from  the  year  1600  to  1700  the  in- 
flexible law  of  supply  and  demand,  in  spite  of  a  con- 
stantly increasing  production  of  silver  and  gold,  brought 
the  value  of  the  white  metal  from  a  commercial  ratio  of 
1 2. i  to  15.1  and  the  price  from  $1.54  to  $1.24,  which,  in 
view  of  the  world's  stock,  27.1  of  silver  to  i  of  gold  in 
1600  to  32.2  to  i  in  1700,  was  still  altogether  out  of  pro- 
portion. Moreover,  in  the  same  period  the  gold  had  only 


76 


SOUND  MONEY. 


increased  from  830  tons  to  1310  tons,  or  63  per  cent, 
while  silver  had  increased  from  23,000  to  45,000  tons,  or 
almost  100  per  cent." 

"Much  obliged,"  remarked  Coin  sarcastically,  "you 
have  saved  me  the  trouble  of  contrasting  those  figures  to 
show  that  free  coinage  kept  the  metals  at  a  parity  in 
spite"  of  their  divergence  in  production  and  supply.  That 
is  the  argument  we  defy  you  to  answer. ' ' 

"If  I  answer  it  completely  will  you  abandon  your  side 
of  the  controversy  and  agree  to  support  s»und  money?' 
asked  Evans,  by  way  of  reply. 

"Oh — you  couldn't  convince  me,"  answered  Coin 
quickly. 

"No — because  your  interests  lie  with  the  bonanza  sil- 
ver kings;  but  I  will  certainly  convince  any  man  who  is 
open  to  conviction,"  declared  the  editor,  who  had  on  his 
fighting  clothes. 

"The  absurdity  of  your  contention  is  shown  when  we 
look  at  the  total  stocks  of  gold  and  silver  at  the  two 
periods  in  question,"  he  resumed,  unrolling  a  chart  on 
which  the  following  table  was  displayed: 

TABLE  SHOWING  THE  TOTAL  STOCK  OF  GOLD  AND  SILVER  IN  THE  WORLD  AT 
THE  PERIODS  NAMED. — MULHALL. 


GOLD. 

SILVER. 

YEAR. 

Coined  ($). 

Uncoined  ($). 

Per 

cent  of 
coin. 

Coined  ($). 

Uncoined  ($). 

Per 

cent  of 
coin. 

1600 

1700 
1800 
1848 
1880 
1890 

141,520,000 
366,000,000 
614,880,000 
766,160,000 
3,586,800,000 
3,855,200,000 

424,560,000 
527,040,000 
1,249,280,000 
1,673,840,000 
1,742,160,000 
2,171,600.000 

25 

41 
33 
32 

67 
64 

497,760,000 
1,098,000,000 
1,756,800,000 
1,893,440,000 
2,713,280,000 
3,132,960,000 

849,120,000 
1,098,000,000 
1,952,000,000 
2,830,400,000 
2,605,920,000 
2,786,480,000 

37 

50 
48 
40 
51 
53 

"Pay  attention  to  the  proportion  of  each  in  use  as  coin. 
The  entire  stock  of  gold  in  1600  was  $566,080,000;  of  this 
$424,560,000  was  uncoined  and  $141,520,000  coined  or  25 


SOUND  MONEY.  11 

per  cent.  At  the  same  period  the  total  stock  of  silver  was 
$1,346,880,000,  of  which  $849,120,000  was  uncoined  and 
only  $497, 760,000  coined,  or  37  per  cent.  In  1700  the 
total  stock  of  gold  was  $893,040,000,  of  which  $527,040,- 
ooo  was  uncoined  and  $366,000,000  coined,  or  41  per 
cent.  At  the  same  period  the  total  stock  of  silver  was 
$2,196,000,000,  of  which  $1,098,000,000  was  uncoined 
and  $1,098,000,000  coined,  or  only  50  per  cent.  Now, 
it  must  be  remembered  that  while  45  per  cent  of  all  the 
gold  produced  is  consumed  in  the  arts  and  manufactures, 
only  27  per  cent  of  the  silver  is  thus  disposed  of.  There- 
fore, the  fact  that  the  gold  coinage  of  the  world  increased 
in  100  years  from  25  per  cent  to  41  per  cent  of  the  total 
product,  while  silver  coinage  only  increased  from  37  per 
cent,  to  50  per  cent,  gives  a  particularly  black  eye  to  your 
two  favorite  contentions  :  That  the  parity  of  the  metals 
was  maintained  by  the  coinage  demand  and  that  silver  is 
the  favorite  money  of  the  people. ' ' 

Applause  greeted  this  irresistible  logic  of  facts,  which 
completely  disposed  of  Coin's  logic  of  fiction.  The  poor 
little  man  found  himself  in  a  mental  bog,  so  to  speak,  and 
at  once  began  to  flounder. 

"That  was  an  extraordinary  period,"  he  ventured. 
"It  does  not  give  a  true  idea  of  the  facts.' 

"Then  we'll  take  the  next  period,  1800,"  said  the 
editor.  "Of  gold  there  was  a  total  of  $1,864,160,000,  of 
which  33  per  cent  was  coined!  Of  silver  there  was 
$3,708,800,000,  of  which  only  48  per  cent  was  coined. 
You  observe  that  the  production  of  both  metals  had  enorm- 
ously increased,  gold  over  100  per  cent,  and  silver  over  43 
per  cent.  In  the  next  period,  for  which  we  have  the  fig- 
ures, 1848,  silver  again  increased  27  per  cent.  It  in- 
creased $1,015,040,000  while  gold  increased  $575,840,000, 


78  SOUND  MONEY. 

or  over  32  per  cent.  There  was  32  per  cent  of  the  gold 
in  the  world  coined,  however,  and  only  40  per  cent  of  the 
silver. ' ' 

"How  do  you  make  that  out?"  interrupted  Coin.  "In 
the  appendix  to  my  book  I  show  by  reprinting  a  table  of 
the  production  of  gold  and  silver,  from  the  report  of  the 
Bureau  of  the  Mint,  that  from  1792  to  1892  the  total 
production  of  gold  was  $5,633,908,000,  and  of  silver 
$5,104,961,000.  Prior  to  1850  the  production  of  silver 
was  78  per  cent  over  that  of  gold,  yet  through  the  free 
coinage  of  the  two  metals,  and  that  alone,  the  commercial 
ratio  was  steadily  maintained." 

"That  alleged  table,"  replied  the  editor,  with  deliber- 
ate emphasis,  '  'is  one  of  the  most  impudent  forgeries  ever 
foisted  upon  an  unsuspecting  public.  I  have  here  a 
copy  of  it  from  1801,  the  first  year  for  which  the  figures 
are  given  by  the  Director  of  the  Mint  in  five  or  ten 
year  periods.  I  have  also  that  official's  own  figures, 
as  given  on  pages  304  and  305  of  the  Treasury  Report 
for  1894,  placed  side  by  side  with  yours,  and  I  display 
them  that  the  whole  world  may  know  you,  sir,  for  the 
falsifier  and  forger  that  you  are. ' ' 

As  he  spoke  these  words  the  editor  unrolled  a  large 
calico  banner  upon  which  the  table  on  the  next  page  was 
painted. 

' 'The  figures  Coin  has  falsified,"  "he  went  on,  "are 
made  more  prominent  so  that  you  may  all  pick  them 
out  for  yourselves.  Notice  the  cunning  he  has  displayed. 
The  first  three  lines  of  each  column  contain  correct  quo- 
tations so  that  any  person  verifiying  his  figures  by  the 
official  document  would  become  satisfied  that  they  are 
correct.  Then  he  begins  to  forge  and  from  i8or  to  1840 
lie  swells  the  amount  of  silver  and  from  f8fo  to  1890  dimin- 


SOUND  MONEY. 


ishes  it  for  the  deliberate  purpose  of  strengthening  the 
argument  he  has  just  made.  Read  the  figures  for  your- 
selves and  say  what  you  think  of  a  cause  which  requires 
such  forgery  and  falsehood  to  sustain  it  !  " 

COIN'S  FORGERY. 
WORLD'S  PRODUCTION  OF  GOLD  AND  SILVER. 


COIN'S  FIGURES. 

TREASURY  FIGURES. 

Period 

Gold. 

Silver. 

Gold. 

Silver. 

1801-10 

$       118,152,000 

$       371,677,000 

$    118,152,000 

$  371,677,000 

1811-20 

76,063,000 

224,786,000 

76,063,000 

224,786,000 

1821-30 

94,479,000 

191,444,000 

94,479,OUO 

191,444,000 

1831-40 

134,841,000 

274,930,000 

134,841,000 

247,930,000 

1811-50 

362,694,000 

337,520.000 

363,928,000 

324,400,000 

1851-56 

618,325.000 

202,400,000 

662,566,000 

181,169,000 

1856-60 

649,625,000 

203,500,000 

670,415,000 

188,092,000 

1861-65 

555,700,000 

242,750,000 

614,944,000 

228,861,000 

1866-70 

547,925,000 

254,275,000 

648,071,000 

278,313,000 

1871-75 

491,050,000 

360,100,000 

577,^83,000 

409,322,000 

1876-80 

552,200,000 

456,300,000 

572,931,000 

509,256,000 

1881-85 
1886 

510.500,000 

106,000,000 

553,100,000 

120,600,000 

495,582,000 
106,000,000 

594,773,000 
120,600,000 

1887 

105,775,000 

124,281  ,000 

105,775,000 

124,281.000 

1888 

110,197,000 

140,706,000 

110,197,000 

140,706,000 

1889 

123,489,000 

162,159,000 

123,489.000 

155,428,000 

1890 

113,150,000 

172,235,000 

118,849,000 

163,032,000 

1891 

120,519,000 

186,733,000 

130,650,000 

177,352,000 

1892 

130,817  000 

196,605,000 

146,298,000 

197,741,000 

Totals 

5,521,501,000 

4,776,401,000 

5,871,083,000 

4,832,163,000 

The  figures  falsified  by  Coin  in  bold  type. 

For  a  few  seconds  after  the  editor  ceased  speaking 
the  audience  remained  in  a  hush  as  each  man  scanned  the 
shameful  record  and  grasped  the  full  meaning  of  the  ter- 
rible exposure.  Then  a  howl  of  rage  and  execration 
arose  from  a  thousand  throats — rage  that  they  had  been 
duped  into  accepting  arguments  based  on  falsification  and 
fraud,  and  execration  for  the  man  responsible.  They 
hissed,  whistled  and  shouted  opprobrious  epithets  until 
they  were  thoroughly  tired  out;  Coin  standing  the  while 
with  a  sneer  on  his  lips  and  rage  in  his  heart.  When 
quiet  had  been  once  more  restored  the  editor  continued: 


80  SOUND  MONEY. 

"Coin  argues  that  there  was  an  enormous  production 
of  silver  over  gold  and  that  it  was  free  coinage  which 
maintained  the  equilibrium  and  prevented  a  fall  in  the 
price  of  the  white  metal.  The  total  coinage  of  bullion 
from  1801  to  1850,  exclusive  of  recoinage,  of  which  we 
had  ourselves  nearly  $100,000,000,  by  all  the  nations  of 
Europe,  Australia  and  America  amounted,  according  to 
Mulhall,  to  just  $136,262,000! 

"How  could  this  trifling  amount,  less  than  25  per  cent 
of  the  production,  to  say  nothing  of  the  world's  stock  of 
silver  on  hand  in  1800  of  $3,708,800,000,  have  any  effect 
whatever  in  maintaining  the  commercial  ratio  ?  A  coin- 
age of  136  millions  out  of  a  total  production  of  over  5,000 
millions  would  have  about  as  much  effect  as  Mrs.  Parting- 
ton  had  with  her  broom  when  she  tried  to  sweep  back  the 
waves  of  the  Atlantic  ocean." 

A  storm  of  applause  mingled  with  laughter  showed 
that  the  audience  appreciated  both  the  complete  answer 
and  the  absurd  comparison. 

1  'The  next  period  is  that  of  the  enormous  gold  pro- 
duction, 1848  to  1880"  continued  the  editor.  "In  the 
latter  year  there  was  $5,328,960,000  of  gold  and  $5,319,- 
200,000  of  silver — more  gold  than  silver.  Of  the  gold  67 
per  cent  was  in  coin,  and  of  the  'money  of  the  people/ 
only  51  per  cent.  Now,  then,  what  accounts  for  the  hold- 
ing up  of  silver  during  that  long  period,  part  of  which 
time  silver  production  had  been  greatly  in  excess  over 
that  of  gold,  and  another  part  when  gold  production  had 
greatly  exceeded  that  of  silver? 

"Mainly  the  enormous  demand  during  the  period  up 
to  1870  for  silver  from  Asia.  The  Eighteenth  century 
was  a  period  of  wonderful  development  of  trade  with 
Jndia,  Japan  and  China,  countries  in  which  silver  Is  use4 


SOUND  MONEY. 

to  the  exclusion  of  gold  to  this  day.  That's  where  the 
demand  for  silver  came  from,  and  as  soon  as  those  countries 
had  absorbed  the  white  metal  to  saturation,  the  demand 
dropped  off,  and  the  price  of  silver  fell.  That  occurred  in 
1871-80.  The  Orientals  have  not  been  able  to  absorb  all 
the  excessive  silver  production  of  the  last  twenty-five 
years,  but  they  have  struggled  bravely  with  it,  and,  assisted 
by  the  enormously  increased  production  of  gold,  which 
thus  lost  some  of  its  value  compared  with  silver,  the  price 
of  the  white  metal,  while  gradually  dropping,  did  not  go 
down  with  a  rush  until  they  were  unable  to  absorb  the 
increase. 

'  'Untold  millions  and  billions  of  the  world's  production 
of  silver  have  been  swallowed  up  by  the  Asiatic  nations 
so  completely  that  there  is  no  record  by  which  even  the 
most  enthusiastic  statistician  can  follow  it.  But  prior  to 
1850  most  of  the  imports  from  India  and  Asia  were  paid 
for  in  silver  bullion  and  not  in  manufactures.  In  1850 
England  alone  imported  over  50  millions  of  pounds  of  tea, 
to  say  nothing  of  vast  quantities  of  silks,  spices,  manu- 
factures of  ivory,  porcelain,  gold  and  other  commodities. 

'  'When  the  large  production  of  gold  commenced  West- 
ern nations  recruited  their  coinage  with  the  more  desir- 
able money  metal  and  sent  the  cheaper  silver  to  the  Orient. 
This  was  done,  moreover,  at  considerable  profit,  as  in 
1810  the  ratio  in  China  was  only  10  to  i,  while  in  Lon- 
don it  was  15.77  to  i.  In  l854  the  Chinese  ratio  was  14 
to  i  and  in  London  it  was  15.33  to  i.  Hence,  the  East 
was  made,  from  time  immemorial,  a  profitable  dumping 
ground  for  the  stocks  of  silver  accumulated  by  Western 
nations  and  by  that  fact  did  more  than  all  the  free  coinage 
of  Europe  and  America  combined  to  maintain  a  parity 
between  the  two  metals. 


82  SOUND  MONEY. 

1  'This  statement  is  strongly  confirmed  by  Mulhall,  who 
agrees  with  Soetbeer,  Jacob  and  other  statisticians,  that 
from  1801  to  1880  the  stock  of  silver  coin  and  bullion 
in  the  western  world  only  increased  $1,610,040,000, 
while  the  world's  production  was  $3,158,250,000.  In 
the  same  period  the  stock  of  gold  coin  and  bullion 
increased  $3, 4.6 4., 800,000,  while  the  production  was  only 
fy,534,273>00°,  and  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  while 
45  Per  cent  °f  aM  the  gold  produced  is  used  in  arts 
and  manufactures,  only  27  per  cent  of  the  silver  is  so 
disposed  of. 

This  irrefutable  demonstration  of  the  absolute  truth 
of  the  argument  advanced  was  the  signal  for  enthusiastic 
cheers  and  applause  which  Coin  tolerated,  because  he  had 
to,  with  an  air  of  despairing  resignation. 

"I  wish  to  call  your  attention  to  another  fact,"  Mr. 
Evans  resumed.  "The  mints  of  India,  since  1893,  have 
been  closed  to  the  free  coinage  of  silver,  so  ask  yourselves 
the  question  whether  the  British  rulers  of  that  country 
found  free  coinage  teeming  with  the  blessings  that  our 
friend,  Coin,  would  have  us  believe  in.  If  so,  why  did 
they  put  up  the  bars  against  the  white  metal?  Why 
didn't  they  go  on  coining  it  and  reaping  the  gorgeous 
good  times  cheap  money  is  sure  to  bring — according  to 
our  friends,  the  free  silverites? 

"To  close  this  branch  of  my  argument  I  will  remind 
you  of  just  one  more  point.  In  1700  there  were  34.3  tons 
of  silver  in  the  world  to  i  of  gold,  and  the  white  metal 
was  worth  $1.24  per  ounce.  In  1870,  before  there  was 
any  demonetization,  except  that  of  England  which  Coin 
says  and  I  have  shown  was  immaterial,  there  were  only 
22.6  tons  of  silver  to  i  of  gold;  yet  the  ratio  had  risen  ^ 
and  the  price  had  fallen  to  $1,20,  The  decadence  of  sil- 


SOUND  MONEY. 

ver  had  begun.  By  1893  the  ratio  was  21.26  tons  of  sil- 
ver to  i  of  gold,  the  commercial  ratio  had  risen  to  26.49, 
and  the  price  had  dropped  to  78  cents! 

"Why?  Not  because  of  demonetization.  That  had 
some  effect,  of  course.  How  much,  may  be  judged 
by  the  fact  that  our  coinage  of  4,500,000  ounces  a  month, 
54,000,000  ounces  a  year,  or  2, 250  tons,  swamped  us.  We 
couldn't  assimilate  it  or  circulate  it;  and  after  a  temporary 
rise  to  $1.04  in  1890,  on  account  of  that  coinage,  the  price 
vslipped  back  to  98  cents  in  1891;  to  87  cents,  lower  than 
ever  before,  in  the  following  year,  and  it  only  averaged  78 
cents  in  1893,  although  the  Sherman  act  was  still  in  opera- 
tion till  November  i. 

'  'The  reason  is  simple.  The  world' s  production  for  1 893 
was  1 6 1 ,776,000  ounces.  Our  54,000,000  ounces  a  year  for 
coinage — more  than  we  knew  what  to  do  with,  was  only  a 
drop  in  the  bucket,  and  hence  came  the  drop  in  the  market. ' ' 

With  this  the  editor  resumed  his  seat  amid  cheers,  and 
Coin  again  took  the  rostrum. 

<(I  have  here  a  diagram,"  he  began,  "which  illustrates 
my  theory  of  unlimited  coinage  of  both  metals  on  a  parity, ' ' 
and  he  unrolled  a  cartoon  representing  two  hands,  each 
drawing  a  cord  through  a  hole  in  a  beam  of  wood,  with 
blocks  on  the  ends  of  the  cords.  The  hands  represented 
the  power  of  unlimited  demand,  he  said,  and  the  beam 
the  price  at  which  the  demand  would  stop.  The  two  little 
blocks  on  the  ends  of  the  cords  were  drawn  close  against 
the  beam  and  he  said  they  represented  silver  and  gold: 
"If  the  hand  holding  the  silver  cord  should  relax  its  pull 
the  block  representing  silver  would  fall  down.  By  demon- 
etization in  1873  the  unlimited  demand  for  one  metal, 
silver,  was  taken  away  and  the  unlimited  demand  for  the 
other  metal,  gold,  was  continued." 


84  SOUND  MONEY. 

''That  is  all  nonsense,"  said  Commissioner  Hobbs. 
"Anybody  can  see  that  if  you  are  going  to  make  50  cent 
silver  compete  with  100  cent  gold  there  will  be  an  unlim- 
ited supply  of  50  cent  silver,  with  no  demand,  and  an 
unlimited  demand  for  100  cent  gold,  but  no  supply.  This 
is  the  way  it  would  be."  The  carpenter  took  a  big, 
flat  pencil  from  his  pocket,  and  made  a  vast  improve- 
ment on  the  cartoon,  with  the  result  shown  in  the 
picture. 

This  convincing  illustration  was  cheered  the  moment 
the  audience  saw  it.  They  had  digested  the  facts,  as 
given  by  Mr.  Evans,  and  saw  the  strict  application  to 
them  of  Hobb's  illustration.  Coin  bit  his  lip  with  annoy- 
ance, but  saw  that  it  was  useless  to  attempt  to  refute  the 
plain  figures. 

'  'Using  the  official  figures  as  given  by  Mr.  Mulhall, ' '  he 
continued,  "and  estimating  from  them,  the  proportion  in 
1872  was  19  tons  of  silver  to  i  of  gold." 

"It  was  exactly  21.32  to  i,  not  'estimated'  from  Mul- 
hall's  figures,  but  figured  from  the  statistics  of  the  treas- 
ury report,"  interrupted  the  editor.  "It  did  not  reach  19 
to  i  until  1883." 

'  'So  much  the  better.  Thanks, ' '  said  Coin,  '  'it  suits 
my  argument." 

"Then  it's  a  wonder  you  didn't  estimate  it  at  6  or  7 
tons  while  you  were  at  it,"  commented  Mr.  Evans. 

Without  further  exchange  of  pleasantries  Coin  con- 
tinued: "I  was  just  about  to  show  that  the  production 
of  silver  had  become  materially  less,  compared  with  gold , 
and  yet  through  all  these  years  from  1848  to  1872  there 
was  no  difference  in  the  commercial  ratio  that  would  not 
be  accounted  for  by  the  French  ratio  disturbance  and  the 
cost  of  exchanging  the  two  metals." 


TD  MONEY. 

''Young  sir,"  suggested  Editor  Evans,  "you  might 
do  well  to  have  a  guardian  appointed.  The  causes  you 
mention  would  have  about  as  much  effect  on  the  commer- 
cial ratio  of  silver  as  a  mosquito  would  have  in  trying  to 
kick  a  football.  The  total  silver  coined  in  France,  in- 
cluding re-coinage,  for  40  years,  1850  to  1890,  was  $224,- 
352,000.  Her  total  net  imports  of  silver,  1861  to  1870, 
were  $67,200,000;  while  her  net  imports  of  gold  during 
the  same  period  were  $336,000,000,  India,  alone,  during 
the  same  period,  to  say  nothing  of  the  other  Oriental 
countries,  imported,  net,  $48 5, 000,000  of  silver  during  the 
same  decade.  The  demand  in  the  East  maintained  the 
parity  until  1871,  when  gold  production  fell  off  from  12.7 
of  the  total  of  gold  and  silver  to  8.  i  per  cent  and  the  latter 
metal  advanced  from  87. 3  to  91.9  .  The  Oriental  demand 
is  the  true  reason." 

'  'The  true  reason  is  that  gold  and  silver  were  freely 
coined  and  the  demand  for  each  was  therefore  unlimited, ' ' 
persisted  Coin.  "Had  specie  payments  been  in  operation 
in  1873  silver  would  never  have  been  demonetized. 
Nearly  every  one  would  have  been  alive  to  the  interest  of 
our  silver  money,  and  it  would  have  been  daily  asserting 
its  own  importance  as  in  1850-54. 

"To  show  you  how  perfectly  the  law  of  free  coinage 
worked  from  time  immemorial  till  1873,  ln  sustaining  the 
commercial  value  of  silver  and  gold  at  a  parity,  I  refer  you 
to  the  ratio  table  in  the  Treasury  report  for  1894,  Page 
288.  You  will  see  from  this  table  that  from  1687  to  1873 
the  commercial  ratio  of  the  two  metals  was  never  lower 
than  i  4o  14-14  and  never  higher  than  i  to  16.25,  a  varia- 
tion of  only  about  two  points. ' ' 

"Only  about  two  points  !  "  ejaculated  the  editor,  "on- 
ly enough  to  send  gold  to  a  premium  of  15  per  cent!" 


5300 
TONS 

UNCOINED 
CrOU). 


15         TO         1 

(THEORETICALLY.) 


THEORETICAL 
FREE  COINAGE. 


s    (ToiN   SAVES  IT  WOULD,  AND  AS 

CONGRESS  IN  1792  BELIEVED  IT 
MUST  BE. 


15         TO         I 

("THEORETICALLY  ) 


PRACTICAL 
FREE  COINAOt. 


WHAT  EXPERIENCE    DEMONSTRATED 
•IN    1834. 


16      TO  1 

(  THEORETICALLY.  ) 


PRACTICAL 

FREE  COINAGE 


What  experience  demon 
strated  in  1853. 


16          TO         I 

(  THEORETICALLY.  ) 


86M878-Bofh  taps  sfepH  "pwith  paper  during 
wh/cH  John  Sherman  comitted  thaf  hornb/e 
crime*  while  nobody  waslooKi'np. 


86  SO  UND  MONE  Y. 

& 

"Oh,  that's  nothing,"  said  Col.  Forrest,  the  able 
financial  and  economical  writer  of  the  Daily  News,  who 
sat  next  to  his  friend,  Kvans.  "When  it  comes  to  defin- 
ing what  the  parity  between  the  two  metals  should  neces- 
sarily be  Coin  talks  as  airily  as  Wilkins  Micawber  did 
about  signing  promissory  notes.  He  talks  of  two  points 
variation  in  the  parity  as  a  mere  trifle  not  worthy  of  our 
notice.  The  legal  ratio  between  the  two  metals  was  fixed 
by  Congress  at  15  to  i,  in  1792,  which  was  then  the  com- 
mercial ratio.  And  yet  in  1834  gold  had  gone  complete- 
ly out  of  circulation.  It  was  selling  in  brokers'  offices  in 
New  York  and  Philadelphia  at  4  to  4^  per  cent  premi- 
um and  we  were  on  a  silver  basis.  The  market  ratio  was 
15.62  in  New  York  and  in  Hamburg  15.73.  ^ut  tn*s 
was  only  ^  of  a  point  while,  as  you  say,  two  points 
would  have  put  gold  up  to  15  per  cent  premium. 
One-tenth  of  one  per  cent  is  sufficient  to  send  either 
one  of  the  metals  to  foreign  countries  or  the  melting  pot. ' ' 

"To  show  you,  Mr.  Coin,  how  absolutely  false  your 
statements  are,"  said  J.  Lawrence  L,aughlin,  professor  of 
political  economy  at  the  University  of  Chicago,  "or  else 
how  little  you  understand  the  subject  you  assume  to  teach, 
I  want  to  emphasize  the  point  made  by  my  friend,  Col. 
Forrest,  that  free  coinage  was  found  in  practice  a  com- 
plete and  utter  failure  as  early  as  1834.  At  that  time  we 
were  already  on  a  monometallic  silver  basis,  and  gold  had 
been  driven  completely  out  of  circulation.  In  order  to 
induce  the  return  of  gold  Congress  committed  the  'crime,' 
as  you  should  call  it,  to  be  consistent,  of  increasing  the 
legal  ratio  to  16  to  i. 

'  'Then  what  happened? 

'  'The  legal  ratio  being  slightly  in  excess  of  commercial 
ratio,  silver  in  its  turn  disappeared  and  gold  took  its  place. 


SOUND  MONEY. 

In  an  incredibly  short  time  we  were  on  a  gold  basis  as  ab- 
solute as  if  the  law  of  1834  had  explicitly  stated  this  to  be 
its  intention.  In  the  form  of  coin  an  ounce  of  gold  would 
exchange,  in  1840,  for  instance,  for  15.62  ounces  of  sil- 
ver, that  being  the  market  ratio.  Gold  was,  therefore, 
worth  more  as  coin  than  as  bullion,  and  it  rushed  to  the 
mint.  On  the  other  hand,  15.62  ounces  of  silver  bullion 
would  buy  one  ounce  of  gold  bullion,  while  it  took  16 
ounces  of  silver  in  coin  to  buy  one  ounce  of  gold  in  coin. 
Silver  was  worth  more  as  bullion  than  as  coin,  hence  it 
rushed  to  the  melting  pot  to  be  changed  to  bullion. 

"By  reason  of  the  increased  gold  production  in  Russia, 
and  later  in  California,  the  commercial  ratio  was  kept  less 
than  i  to  1 6  for  along  time,  and  this  explains  why  silver 
disappeared  wholly  from  circulation. 

'  'You  have  stated  that  had  specie  payments  been  in 
operation  in  1873  silver  would  never  have  been  demone- 
tized, and  that  nearly  everyone  would  have  been  alive  to 
the  interest  of  our  silver  money,  which  would  daily  have 
asserted  its  importance,  as  in  1850-1854. 

'  'What  is  the  truth? 

"Before  1850  our  silver  dollars  had  been  melted  into 
bullion,  and  so  completely  had  even  our  subsidiary  coinage, 
small  change,  disappeared,  that  all  possible  shifts  were 
resorted  to  to  make  change.  Shillings,  bits,  levys,  etc. , 
were  taken  up.  This  became  so  intolerable  that  in  1853 
the  question  of  the  coinage  was  thoroughly  discussed.  It 
was  realized  that  the  ratio  of  15  to  i  from  1792  to  1834 
had  resulted  only  in  a  silver  currency,  and  that  the  ratio 
of  1 6  to  i  since  1834  had  resulted  only  in  a  gold  cur- 
rency. 

"As  a  result  the  act  of  1853  was  passed,  which  was 
the  practical  abandonment  of  the  impracticable  attempt  to 


88  SO  UND  MONE  Y. 

keep  both  gold  and  silver  coins  in  circulation  by  trying 
another  change  of  the  ratio.  They  let  the  silver  dollar 
alone.  It  was  then  completely  out  of  circulation.  The 
market  ratio  in  1853  being  15.4  to  i,  a  gold  dollar  would 
only  buy  15.4  times  23.2  grains  of  silver  in  the 
market,  or  357  ^  grains.  This  was  14  grains  less  than 
the  legal  silver  dollar.  In  other  words,  a  silver  dollar 
was  at  a  premium  of  4  per  cent  over  gold  in  1853.  So 
they  then  and  there  gave  up  trying  to  keep  the  silver 
dollar  in  use.  They  had  the  gold  standard  and  gold  in 
abundance  and  were  satisfied.  Mr.  Dunham,  who  had 
charge  of  the  bill,  said: 

"  'Another  objection  urged  against  this  proposed 
change  is  that  it  gives  us  a  standard  of  gold  only.  Gen- 
tlemen talk  about  a  double  standard  of  gold  and  silver  as 
a  thing  that  exists,  and  that  we  propose  to  change.  We 
have  had  but  a  single  standard  for  the  last  three  or  four 
years.  There  has  been,  and  now  is,  gold.  We  propose  to 
let  it  remain  so,  and  to  adapt  silver  to  it,  and  regulate  it 
by  it: 

'  'This,  then,  was  the  thing  usually  supposed  to  have 
been  done  in  1873.  The  real  demonetization  of  silver  dol- 
lars took  place  in  1853,  twenty  years  before  the  nominal 
demonetization  of  1873.  As  I  have  said  elsewhere,  the 
act  of  1853  tried  and  condemned  the  criminal,  and  after 
twenty  years  of  waiting  for  a  reprieve,  the  execution  only 
took  place  in  1873. 

"The  use  of  silver  was  practically  abandoned  in  1853, 
and  a  subsidiary  currency  of  345.6  grains  to  the  dollar's 
worth  was  enacted.  This  was  token  money,  and  there 
would  not  be  any  reason  for  melting  it,  as  it  would  take 
357  Y^  grains  of  it  to  buy  a  gold  dollar.  Moreover,  as  if 
to  emphasize  the  deliberate  intention  of  Congress  to  de- 


SOUND  MONEY  89 

monetize  the  white  metal,  its  legal  tender  capacity  was 
limited  to  five  dollars." 

This  lucid  statement  of  the  facts  which  so  completely 
demolished  two  more  of  Coin's  pet  delusions — the  ( 'horri- 
ble crime  of  1873,"  and  the  continuous  use  of  a  bimetallic 
standard  on  even  terms  from  1792  to  1873,  was  received 
by  the  audience  with  a  storm  of  cheering  in  which  some 
penetrating  hisses,  either  intended  by  the  intelligent  por- 
tion for  the  discredited  and  discomfitted  Coin;  or  by  the 
enraged  silverites  for  the  witness  who  had  pulled  back 
the  veil  of  misstatement  and  shown  in  the  clear  light  of 
day  the  facts  of  history. 

Coin,  himself,  looked  ghastly.  Commissioner  Raf- 
ferty's  face  was  a  study.  The  life  had  been  completely 
knocked  out  of  the  silver  argument  and  he  was  almost 
ready  to  surrender.  As  for  Chairman  Clench,  he  looked 
convinced ;  but  with  the  honest  caution  which  character- 
ized him,  he  asked: 

"Have  you  that  act  of  Congress  with  you,  Professor?" 

"I  have  not,  sir.  But  I  am  perfectly  familiar  with 
its  provisions  and  was  quite  safe  in  quoting  from 
memory." 

"I'm  sorry — you  might  have  made  a  mistake.  I  am 
free  to  say  that  if  that  law  sustains  your  argument  I  only 
need  to  be  convinced  on  two  other  points — the  effect  of 
free  coinage  on  wages  and  prices. ' ' 

"I  have  here  a  copy  of  the  law  of  1853,  as  issued  by 
the  Treasury  Department,"  said  Mr.  A.  T.  Ewing,  who 
had  been  a  deeply  interested  listener  in  company  with  a 
large  delegation  from  the  Honest  Money  League.  "It  is 
very  short  and  I  will  read  it  if  you  choose,"  he  concluded. 
Mr.  Ewing,  whose  telling  demolition  of  the  silver  unit 
falsehood  was  evidently  well  remembered,  was  received 


90  SOUND  MONEY. 

with  warm  applause  and,  on  the  chairman's  invitation,  he 
read  this  act  of  Congress. 

"Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  United  States  of  America,  in  Congress  assembled: 

"That  from  and  after  the  first  day  of  June,  eighteen  hundred 
and  fifty -two  [three]  the  weight  of  the  half  dollar  or  piece  of  fifty 
cents  shall  be  one  hundred  and  ninety-two  grains,  and  the  quarter 
dollar,  dime,  and  half  dime,  shall  be,  respectively,  one-half,  one- 
fifth  and  one-tenth  of  the  weight  of  the  said  half  dollar. 

"  'Sec.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  the  silver  coins, 
issued  in  conformity  with  the  above  section,  shall  be  legal  tenders 
in  payment  of  debts  for  all  sums  not  exceeding  five  dollars.'  " 

Chairman  Clench  smote  the  table  excitedly  as  the  lawyer 
ceased  reading  and  the  vast  majority  of  the  audience,  who 
were  by  this  time  convinced  that  50  cents  worth  of  silver 
could  only  pass  current  for  100  cents  when  backed  up  by  i  oo 
cents  worth  of  gold  in  the  national  treasury,  and  exchange- 
able for  it,  concluded  while  they  applauded,  that  there 
were  by  this  time  two  advocates  of  sound  money  out  of  the 
three  men  who  composed  Labor's  Commission  on  Coinage. 

At  this  point  there  was  a  commotion  in  the  rear  end  of 
the  hall.  A  small  boy  was  trying  to  fight  his  way  through 
the  densely  packed  crowd  and  was  stopped  by  one  of 
Mayor  Swift's  large,  blue-coated  policemen.  The  boy 
carried  a  package  and  insisted  that  he  had  business  there 
—he  wanted  to  see  Mr.  Evans. 

'  'Let  him  come  through,  please,"  requested  the  editor. 
"He's  my  messenger. "  So  the  throng  parted  and  the 
grimy  faced  little  printer's  devil  at  length  succeeded  in 
reaching  the  platform. 

"I  have  been  waiting  for  this  package,"  said  the 
editor,  as  he  untied  the  string.  "It  contains  a  table  I 
have  had  printed  for  the  use  of  this  commission  and  gives 
the  complete  history  of  the  production  and  value  of  the 


SOUND  MONEY. 


91 


precious  metals  from  1851  to  1893.  When  this  table  is 
studied  and  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  the  decline  of  the 
oriental  demand  began  in  1870,  any  person  with  aver- 
age sense  can  understand  why  silver  has  so  steadily 
declined  in  price  since  1870,  when  it  was  $1.32  per  ounce, 
with  an  average  production  for  the  previous  five  years  of 
261.25  tons,  until  1893  with  its  mammoth  production  of 
6,740.66  tons  when  it  sold  for  the  average  price  of  78 
cents,  only  to  sink  to  63  cents  in  1894. 

WORLD'S   PRODUCTION   OF   GOLD  AND  SILVER   FROM    1851 
TO    1893.      BASED   ON  TREASURY   REPORT    1894. 


GOLD. 

SILVER. 

Value. 

^ 

Value. 

*'*J 

V 

•n 

in 

o 

Dollars. 

•*~  G 

« 

Dollars. 

f|j 

u 

2§o 

bo 

£ 

1 

«£ 

£ 

«£ 

5  IS 

5£? 

•Sp, 

1851-55 

1,325.067 

662,566,000 

18.5 

5,935.174 

184,169,000 

81.6 

15.41  j    4.47:1 

1.34 

56-60 

1,351.30 

670,415,000 

18.2 

6,061.54 

188,092,000 

81.8 

15.30     4.48:1 

.35 

61-65 

1.239.49 

614,944,000 

14.4 

7,375.41 

228,861,000 

85.6 

15.40 

5.95:1 

1.34 

66-70 

1,306.26 

648,071,000 

12.7 

8,964.91 

278,313,000 

87.3 

15.46 

6.86:1 

1.32 

71-75 

1,164.79 

577,883,000 

8.1 

13,191.04 

409,322,000 

91.9 

15.97i  11.32:1 

.29 

76-80 

1,154.81 

572,931  000 

6.6 

16,411.58 

509,256,000 

93.4 

17.89 

14.21:1 

.15 

81-85 

998.90 

495,582,000 

5.0 

19,167.48 

594,773,090 

95.0 

18.59 

19.18:1 

.11 

1886 

213.65 

106,000,000 

5.2 

3,886.50 

120,600,000 

94.8 

20.78 

18.28:1 

.99 

1887 

213.20 

105,775,000 

5.0 

4,005.16 

124,281,000 

95.0 

21.13  18.31:1 

.97 

1888 

222.11 

110,197,000 

4.6 

4,534.45 

140,706,000 

95.4 

21.991  20.41:1 

.93 

1889 

248.90 

123,489,000 

4.7 

5,003.91  |      155,428,000 

95.3 

22.10 

20.10:1 

.93 

1890 

239.55 

118,849.000 

4.3 

5.253.54  !      163,032.000 

95.7 

19.76 

21.93:1 

1.04 

1891 

263.34 

130,650,000 

4.4 

5,715.45 

177,352,000 

95.6 

30.92  1  21.70:1 

.98 

1892 

294.88 

146,298,000 

4.4 

6,372.50 

197,741,000 

95.6 

23.72  21.61:1 

.87 

1893 

316.91 

157,228,000 

4.5 

6,740.66 

209,165,000 

95.5 

26.49 

21.26:1 

.78 

5,240,378,000 

3,681,091,000 

"Since  1793,"  continued  Mr.  Evans,  '  'we  have  coined 
$1,711,880,288  of  gold  and  $675,954,221  of  silver.  In 
spite  of  silver  being  the  money  of  the  people  we  only 
coined,  in  round  numbers,  676  millions  of  that  metal  to 
one  billion,  seven  hundred  and  twelve  millions  of  gold,  or 
one  billion  and  thirty-six  millions  more  of  the  rich  man's 
money,  as  Mr,  Coin  calls  it,  Of  this  we  coined  prior  to 


92  SOUND  MONEY. 

1873  of  gold  $795,091,710  and  of  silver  $142,365,150. 
Of  this,  about  $100,000,000  was  re-coinage  of  foreign  sil- 
ver, as  directed  by  the  act  of  1792,  and  extended  by  the 
policy  of  the  Treasury  Department  to  the  Spanish  milled 
dollars  exempted  by  the  act.  Since  that  'terrible  crime' 
of  1873,  however,  which  Professor  Laughlin  has  so  com- 
pletely run  to  earth,  we  only  coined  $916,788,578  of  gold 
to  $538,760,665  of  silver.  Is  it  because  this  country  has 
been  so  poor  and  so  unprosperous  since  1873  that  we  have 
made  this  wonderful  advance,  proportionately,  in  our  coin- 
age of  the  poor  man's  money?  I  opine  that  Mr.  Coin  will 
scarcely  dare  to  take  that  position  before  this  audience!" 

And  Mr.  Coin  didn't! 

''You  have  several  times  stated,  Mr.  Coin,"  said  Chair- 
man Clench,  "that  the  demonetization  of  silver  has 
wrought  great  mischief  to  this  country.  Will  you  please 
give  us  your  views  on  that  point?" 

'  'With  pleasure, ' '  said  Coin,  glad  of  a  chance  to  escape 
from  the  merciless  exposure  of  his  production  and  ratio 
falacies.  "Silver,  by  demonetization,  has  been  deposed 
from  its  proper  place  as  a  money  metal,  and  we  have  lost 
the  service  it  should  perform.  The  report  of  the  Director 
of  the  Mint  shows  that  since  1850  the  world  produced 
more  gold  than  silver. ' ' 

"Do  you  mean  more  in  quantity  or  in  value?"  asked 
Chairman  Clench. 

"Oh,  in  value,"  replied  Coin.  "I  wouldn't  for  the 
world  attempt  to  mislead  you.  Gold  predominated  by 
$1,559,287." 

'  'And  by  weight  silver's  production  to  that  of  gold  was 
in  the  proportion  of  1 8  tons  to  i , "  added  Editor  Evans. 

"Before  demonetization,"  resumed  Coin  without  tak- 
ing any  further  notice  of  the  scoring  he  had  received,  for 


SOUND  MONEY.  93 

he  had  grown  callous  by  this  time,  "both  metals  consti- 
tuted the  redemption  money  of  the  world.  And  as  both 
metals  existed  in  about  the  same  quantities,  it  gave  us 
twice  as  much  money  of  redemption  as  gold  alone  will 
now  furnish  us.  There  is  in  the  world  now,  according  to 
the  director  of  our  mint,  $3,727,018,869  in  gold  and 
$3,820,571,346  in  silver." 

"Whereabouts  do  you  find  that  statement?"  inquired 
Editor  Evans. 

"In  the  Treasury  report  for  1894,"  replied  Coin,  un- 
blushingly. 

"On  what  page?"  insisted  the  editor. 

"Oh,  you'll  find  it  there  somewhere,"  said  Coin, 
shifting  uneasily  from  one  foot  to  the  other. 

"Not  if  you  search  for  a  thousand  years,"  said  Evans. 
"What  is  more,  there  are  not  sufficient  facts  given  in  that 
report  to  enable  you  or  anybody  else  to  make  even  the 
wildest  kind  of  a  guess  at  the  amounts  of  gold  and  silver 
at  present  free  in  the  world  as  bullion,  coin,  plate  or 
jewelry." 

Coin  did  not  reply.  He  couldn't — he  had  been 
caught  again  in  a  falsehood  and  he  knew  it.  While  he 
was  trying  to  brace  himself  for  another  flight  of  fancy, 
R.  W.  Knott,  the  brilliant  editor  of  the  Louisville  Post, 
arose  from  his  seat  in  the  audience  and  said: 

"L,et  us  put  a  pin  in,  right  there,  Mr.  Chairman. 
Coin  has  stated  that  the  act  of  1873  robbed  us  of  one-half 
of  our  money  of  ultimate  redemption.  His  argument, 
which  is  as  old  as  this  silver  lunacy  itself,  is  that  there 
isn't  enough  gold  in  the  world  for  the  demands  of  com- 
merce without  the  aid  of  silver. ' ' 

"Platform,  platform!"  shouted  the  crowd,  and  the 
Kentuckian,  after  acceding  to  the  request,  continued: 


94  SOUND  MONEY. 

"At  the  close  of  1892  there  was  $7,500,000,000  of 
gold  and  silver  money  in  circulation.  The  combined  pro- 
duction of  gold  and  silver  in  1873  was  $178,000,000,  of 
which  $81,000,000  was  silver.  In  1894  tne  world's  pro- 
duction of  gold,  alone,  is  officially  estimated  at  $182,000,- 
ooo — or  more  than  the  combined  production  of  gold  and 
silver  in  1873.  With  gold  alone  we  are  adding  as  much 
money  metal  to  the  world's  supply  in  1894  as  with  both 
metals  in  1873;  with  the  difference  that  the  quality  is 
better  because  it  does  not  fluctuate  but  is  a  fixed  value 
in  every  country  under  the  sun,  and  the  facilities  for  cir- 
culating it  are  vastly  improved."  The  audience  grew 
deeply  interested,  for  this  was  a  new  view  of  the 
matter. 

"From  1792  to  1873,"  Col.  Knott  continued,  "the 
world  produced  two  billion  eight  hundred  and  fifty  mil- 
lion, two  hundred  and  forty-two  thousand  dollars  in  sil- 
ver, and  two  billion,  three  hundred  and  eighty-two 
million,  eight  hundred  and  ninety-seven  thousand  dollars 
in  gold.  If  all  the  silver  produced  since  1792  had  been 
wiped  out  in  1873,  and  no  more  had  been  discovered,  the 
production  of  gold  would  have  made  good  the  loss. 
Eighty-three  per  cent  has  already  been  made  good,  and 
our  production  of  gold  now  equals  that  of  gold  and  silver 
combined  in  1873." 

Applause  followed  this  statement,  and  even  RafFerty 
began  to  see  daylight  at  last. 

"Is  it  not  a  fact  that  all  the  silver  was  wiped  out  in 
1873?"  he  asked. 

"Every  dollar  of  our  silver  then  existing  is  to-day,  if 
existing,  a  legal  tender  for  its  face  value,"  was  the  reply; 
and  there  was  not  a  man  in  the  hall  who  had  not  fre- 
quently received  and  paid  out  again  old  half  dollars  and 


SOUND  MONEY.  05 

quarters  dated  prior  to  1860.  They  recognized  the  truth 
of  the  statement. 

"The  United  States,  alone,  has  added  $500, 000,000  to 
the  silver  coinage  since  1873,"  resumed  the  Colonel. 

''Have  you  seen  Coin's  illustration  of  all  the  gold  in 
the  world  in  the  form  of  a  cube  placed  in  the  wheat  pit 
at  the  Board  of  Trade?"  inquired  Rafferty. 

"I  have,"  replied  the  Colonel.  "It  is  much  too  small; 
but  if  he  had  calculated  it  on  the  basis  of  the  world's 
gold  in  1873  it  would  have  been  just  about  half  the  size 
he  makes  it.  On  his  own  estimate,  the  cube  of  gold, 
alone,  in  1895  would  be  as  potential  as  the  cubes  of  gold 
and  silver  together  in  1873 — in  the  good  old  palmy  days 
he  seems  to  lament  so  much,  before  calamity  came 
upon  us." 

"Has  the  disproportion  between  the  gold  of  the  world 
and  the  debts  of  the  world  any  bearing  on  the  question 
of  coinage  as  Coin  declares  it  has?"  asked  Hobbs,  who 
was  delighted  with  the  day's  testimony. 

"Not  the  slightest,"  replied  Col.  Knott.  "The  debts 
of  the  world  are  to  be  paid  in  the  goods  of  the  world,  not 
in  gold.  Gold  is  used  to  settle  balances  and  for  ultimate 
redemption  of  currency  notes.  The  debts  are  paid  by  the 
crops  of  the  future,  by  the  cattle  yet  unborn,  by  iron  and 
coal  and  other  minerals  still  in  the  earth. 

"I  have  here,"  continued  the  witness,  "a  page  from 
Coin's  book,  in  which  he  advances  the  absurd  idea,  based 
on  his  own  estimate,  that  because  he  figures  out  about 
15^  tons  of  silver  to  one  of  gold  in  the  world,  though, 
19.2  to  i  is  the  exact  amount  according  to  the  most 
reliable  figures,  therefore  15.5  to  i  is  the  proper  commer- 
cial ratio  of  the  metals  for  money.  This  is  absurd.  It 
would  be  absurd  even  were  his  weight  ratio  correct-  He 


Of»  .SYVW/J  MONEY. 

mi^ht  as  well  attempt  to  fix  a  ratio  between  wool  and  cot- 
ton, between  coal  and  wood,  or  between  wheat  and  corn, 
by  weight.  No  intelligent  man  would  be  guilty  of  at- 
tempting to  fix  the  proper  ratio  between  gold  and  silver 
by  weight.  Formerly  it  was  contended  that  the  weight 
of  a  man's  brain  was  the  measure  of  his  intellectual 
power;  now  it  is  admitted  that  it  is  the  convolutions  of 
the  brain,  its  quality  and  not  its  quantity,  which  deter- 
mines a  man's  intellectual  status.  So  it  is  with  the  pro- 
ducts of  a  man's  labor.  There  is  no  subtle  relation 
between  gold  and  silver;  no  umbilical  cord  connects 
them.  Silver  is  not  gold  mixed  with  alloy  to  make 
it  heavier.  It  is  a  different  metal,  found  under  different 
circumstances,  produced  by  different  methods,  and  requir- 
ing different  forms  of  labor.  It  is  the  labor  expended,  plus 
the  demand,  which  fixes  the  value  of  each  metal  in  the 
market,  and  that  value  is  the  only  natural  ratio,  as  Jeffer- 
son asserted  over  a  hundred  years  ago." 

"By  a  simple  illustration  I  can  show  that  you  are 
wrong,"  declared  Coin,  who  then  drew  a  picture  of  two 
cisterns,  as  shown  in  the  illustration.  "It  is  immaterial 
what  ratio  is  fixed,"  he  continued,  "in  spite  of  all  that 
has  been  said  here  to-day.  I  still  maintain  that  the  par- 
tial failures  of  my  theory,  which  have  been  adduced  by 
the  two  editors  and  the  theoretical  gentleman  from  the 
Chicago  University,  were  due  to  extraordinary  circum- 
stances. Free  coinage,  or  unlimited  demand,  fixed  the 
parity  of  gold  and  silver  for  200  years  with  but  two  points 
of  variation  in  the  ratio,  and  it  will  do  it  again  as  this 
illustration  shows. ' ' 

While  Coin  was  speaking  Hobbs  had  again  been  busy 
with  his  broad,  flat  pencil  and  now  handed  three  sketches 
of  similar  cisterns  to  his  fellow  commissioners,  who  in  turn 


SOUND  MONEY.  37 

handed  them  to  the  other  gentlemen  on  the  platform.  "I 
could  have  drafted  them  better  if  I'd  had  a  neat  piece  of 
board  to  draw  on,"  said  Hobbs,  apologetically,  "for,  you 
see,  that's  what  carpenters  do  most  of  their  drafting  on." 

' '  No  apologies, ' '  said  Professor  Laughlin.  '  'The  dia- 
grams hit  the  nail  squarely  on  the  head  and  show  the 
sophistry  of  Mr.  Coin's  production  with  admirable  clear- 
ness." 

"I  would  now  like  to  ask  Mr.  Coin  a  question,"  said 
Col.  Forrest.  "Did  you  not  say,  sir,  in  your  book  that 
all  the  money  should  be  at  par,  one  kind  of  money  just  as 
good  as  any  other  kind  of  money?  Didn't  you  say  that  it 
was  impossible  to  maintain  two  kinds  of  redemption 
money  with  one  made  from  property  having  a  commercial 
value  of  only  one-half,  or  any  noticeable  per  cent  less 
than  the  other?" 

'I  did,  sir,  replied  Coin,  "and  I  said,  further,  that 
when  such  is  the  case  the  lesser  must  lean  on  the  greater, 
and  to  all  intents  and  purposes  become  credit  money, 
while  the  more  valuable  becomes  the  only  money  of 
redemption. 

"We  have  in  the  United  States,  in  round  figures, 
$1,600,000,000  of  all  kinds  of  money.  About  one-third 
of  it  is  gold,  one-third  silver  and  one-third  paper." 

••Will  you  ever  tell  the  truth?  interrupted  Editor 
Evans.  "The  Treasury  report  shows  that  our  total 
money,  instead  of  $1,600,000,000  as  you  have  stated,  is 
$2,421,461,747 — 50  per  cent  more.  Why  don't  you 
falsify  so  as  not  to  be  found  out?"  and  with  that  he  handed 
the  Treasury  report  open  at  page  438  to  Commissioner 
Rafferty,  who  glanced  at  the  figures  and  looked  disgusted. 

"Of  that  amount  $1,169,390,080  is  paper — not  $520, - 
000,000  as  you  have  stated." 


98  SO  UND  MONE  Y. 

"I  said  in  round  numbers,"  objected  Coin. 

"Heaven  help  the  numbers  when  you're  round!" 
retorted  the  editor.  "This  business  of  falsifying  to  the 
extent  of  over  50  per  cent  for  the  pupose  of  making 
people  believe  that  we  need  expansion  of  the  currency  is 
about  as  brazenly  dishonest  as  anything  I  ever  heard  of. 
It  is  absurd  to  talk  about  our  needing  the  coinage  of  sil- 
ver, either  free  or  limited,  because  we  already  have  more 
currency  in  the  country  than  we  know  what  to  do  with, 
or  are  able  to  use.  Our  circulation  is  $1,661,835,000  and 
lying  idle  in  the  treasury,  we  have  $759, 626,000  for  which 
there  is  no  demand.  What  would  we  do  with  free  and 
unlimited  coinage  at  16.1?" 

Coin  pocketed  the  rebuke  with  the  air  of  a  man  who 
has  suffered  and  continued: 

"A  blunder  was  made  when  silver  was  demonetized. 
The  remedy  is  to  remonetize  it  and  thereby  restore  its 
commercial  value. ' ' 

"But  if  we  find,  as  we  have  found  already,  and  we 
surely  would,  that  the  use  of  silver  as  money,  even 
exclusively,  by  this  Nation  had  no  appreciable  effect  on 
the  price  of  the  world's  supply — that,  instead  of  govern- 
ing or  dictating  the  ratio  of  commerce,  commerce  continued 
to  dictate  the  ratio  to  us,  what  then?"  inquired  Prof. 
L,aughlin. 

"If  the  commercial  value  of  23. 22  grains  of  gold  is  more 
than  the  commercial  value  of  371^  grains  of  silver,  then 
reduce  it  to  22,  21,  20  grains  or  any  number  less  that  may 
be  necessary  to  put  the  two  at  a  ratio  where  the  practical 
effect  of  free  coinage  will  demonstrate  that  the  ratio  is  at 
its  natural  point  and  parity  easily  obtained.  I  have 
already  stated  that  on  page  141  of  my  book  in  these  words: 
'Reducing  the  gold  in  the  gold  dollar  would  leave  gold 


SOUND  MONEY.  99 

for  more  dollars  and  this  would  assist  in  establishing  ris- 
ing prices,  as  it  would  multiply  the  number  of  dol- 
lars. The  weight  of  the  silver  dollar  should  not  be 
changed.  Its  integrity  should  be  preserved  as  originally 
fixed. 

"  'One  point  should  never  be  lost  sight  of  and  that  is 
that  higher  prices  will  come  with  the  remonetization  of 
siver,  even  though  gold  goes  to  a  premium.'1  " 

"Do  you  stand  by  that  statement?"  asked  Col.  Forrest. 

"I  do,"  replied  Coin. 

"Then,  at  last  the  cat  is  out  the  bag.  You  cast  aside 
the  bimetallic  mask  behind  which  you  have  been  trying 
to  conceal  your  identity.  You  stand  revealed  and  self- 
confessed  a  silver  monometallist  and  an  unblushing  advo- 
cate of  national  fraud  and  repudiation!"  exclaimed  Col. 
Forrest  in  stern  denunciation. 

A  wave  of  sensation  and  excitement  swept  through 
the  hall  as  the  full  import  of  Coin's  confession  as  to  his 
ultimate  object  and  Col.  Forrest's  accusation  impressed 
itself  upon  the  audience.  Hitherto,  with  Coin  and  his 
followers,  the  cry  had  been  "Bimetallism  and  free  coin- 
age of  the  two  metals  at  a  parity  on  equal  terms. ' '  Now 
the  truth  was  out — they  wanted,  all  along,  a  silver  basis. 
They  had  been  accused  of  this  before  and  had  strenuously 
denied  it.  It  had  been  argued  before  that  free  coinage  of 
silver  at  1 6  to  i  must  inevitably  result  in  silver  monomet- 
allism and  they  had  combatted  the  arguments  and 
declared  upon  what  they  were  pleased  to  term  their 
"honor"  that  they  meant  no  harm  to  gold,  but  only 
sought  fair  play  for  silver.  All  that  was  now  past  and 
the  open  declaration  for  a  silver  basis  was  of  record! 
The  issue  was  made  fairly  and  squarely  for  the  American 
people  to  decide. 


100  SO  UND  MONE  Y. 

"Then  you  coolly  propose,"  continued  Col.  Forrest, 
"that  if  you  succeed  in  obtaining  free  coinage,  and  gold 
still  continues  at  a  premium  compared  with  silver,  you 
will  'put  less  gold  in  the  gold  dollar'  and  'bring  the 
weight  of  the  gold  dollar  down  until  gold  and  silver  are 
at  a  parity,'  to  quote  your  own  words. 

'  'What  does  this  avowal  mean?  That  the  government 
shall  cut  all  debts  in  half,  both  public  and  private,  in 
order  that  the  debtor  class  may  be  relieved  by  one-half  of 
the  burden  of  their  obligations!  And  this  in  the  face  of 
the  express  declaration  of  the  constitution  forbidding  the 
passage  of  any  law  which  will  impair  the  obligations  of 
contracts!  It  is  national  repudiation  and  dishonor!  It 
is  downright  legalized  robbery!" 

"Money  and  those  debts  payable  in  money,"  replied 
Coin,  "have  been  steadily  increasing  in  exchangeable 
value  as  compared  with  the  property  of  the  people.  A 
debt  for  $1,000  that  1000  bushels  of  wheat  would  have 
paid  ten  years  ago  now  requires  the  farmer  to  give  2,000 
bushels  of  wheat  in  exchange  for  the  dollars  wijh  which 
to  pay  the  same  debt.  Taxes  have  increased,  as  expressed 
in  dollars,  and  have  doubled  and  quadrupled  as  measured 
in  the  property  the  people  have  surrendered,  and  are  sur- 
rendering, with  which  to  pay  them  since  1873,"  he  con- 
cluded, boldly  pleading  justification  for  the  villainy  he 
and  his  followers  propose  if  the  honest  men  of  this  honest 
Nation  ever  give  them  the  opportunity  to  carry  it  into  effect. 

"Granting  for  the  moment  that  what  you  say  is  true 
— and  it  is  as  false  as  pretty  nearly  every  other  state- 
ment that  you  have  advanced,"  said  Col.  Forrest,  delib- 
erately and  emphatically,  "the  remedy  you  propose  is 
the  confiscation  of  one-half  of  the  purchasing  power  of 
the  labor  of  the  country!  The  reduction  in  the  value  of 


SOUND  MG\'!<:Y.  ier 

money  one-half  would,  according  to  your  own  theory, 
advance  the  prices  of  all  commodities  one-half  or,  in  other 
words,  require  two  dollars  from  the  brawn  and  brain  of 
labor  for  the  purchase  of  that  which  can  now  be  bought 
for  one  dollar!"  Another  wave  of  sensation  swept  through 
the  hall,  and  the  excitement  became  intense.  Commis- 
sioner Rafferty  arose  from  his  seat  and  said: 

" Whenever  prices  are  high,  times  are  good,  and  there 
is  plenty  of  work  for  labor  and  plenty  of  employment  for 
capital.  If  prices  go  up,  so  will  wages." 

"My  dear  sir,"  replied  Col.  Forrest,  "you  know  as 
well  as  I  do  that  when  prices  advance  labor  is  the  first  to 
feel  it — at  the  wrong  end.  Commodities  cost  more,  and 
the  wages  of  labor  is  the  very  last  price  in  the  entire  list  to 
increase.  No  matter  how  much  other  commodities  may  rise 
in  price,  the  man  who  has  only  one  commodity  to  sell,  his 
labor,  which  he  is  obliged  to  part  with  at  a  forced  sale 
day  by  day,  for  daily  bread,  is  ever  at  a  disadvantage. 
Human  selfishness  impels  his  employer  to  purchase  his 
labor  at  the  lowest  price  he  can  be  compelled  to  take,  and 
every  advance  in  wages  has  always  been  and  I  fear,  in 
our  time,  at  all  events,  always  will  be  preceded  by  a 
pitched  battle  in  which  labor,  whether  victor  or  van- 
quished, is  invariably  the  greater  sufferer. 

"Do  I  need  to  remind  those  men  in  this  audience  who 
proudly  wear  the  badge  of  the  grand  army  of  what  oc- 
curred during  the  tremendous  advance  of  prices  during 
and  following  the  war?  Did  not  the  prices  of  commodi- 
ties respond  to  every  upward  bound  of  gold?  But  did 
wages  ever  go  side  by  side  with  prices  ?  Never !  Our  in- 
flated paper  currency  was  the  heaviest  load  the  laboring 
men,  those  who  live  by  the  toil  of  their  hands,  were  ever 
compelled  to  carry ! ' ' 


iO.>     •  SOUND  MONEY.    .. 

A  spontaneous  burst  of  applause  proved  that  in  that 
audience  at  least  were  men  with  a  lively  recollection  of 
wild  cat  and  red  dog  currency  and  of  greenbacks  at  60 
per  cent  discount. 

"In  addition  to  the  confiscation  of  one-half  of  the  pur- 
chasing power  of  the  labor  of  this  country  you  propose  to 
destroy  one-half  of  the  purchasing  power  of  the  savings 
of  the  country  in  the  shape  of  bank  deposits  amounting 
to  nearly  $4,500,000,000;  of  public  and  private  debts 
amounting  to  untold  sums,  and  of  the  money  held  in  trust 
by  life  and  fire  insurance  companies,  building  and  loan 
associations,  fraternal  and  mutual  benefit  orders  and  the 
like.  In  short,  if  you  gentlemen  are  allowed  your  way 
you  will  inaugurate  an  era  of  legitimatized  spoliation  and 
legalized  robbery." 

"Calling  names  is  always  the  gold  bug's  favorite 
argument,"  said  Coin  brazenly.  "We  have  not 
sufficient  money  with  gold  alone  and  what  we  have 
is  hoarded  away  and  cornered  by  the  banks  so  that 
the  people  can't  get  it  to  use  when  they  need  it.  We 
need  free  coinage  of  silver  to  bring  the  bankers 
to  their  senses.  We  want  to  kick  gold  into  the 
street." 

"Never  in  the  history  of  this  country,  except  in  1892, 
had  we  so  much  money  in  circulation  as  at  present,  nor 
so  much  per  capita,"  replied  Col.  Forrest.  "In  1873  we 
had  $774,445,610  of  all  kinds  of  money,  or  $18.58  per 
capita.  All  except  $25,000,000  of  this  was  depreciated 
paper,  and  of  that  small  amount  of  coin  and  bullion  twen- 
ty-two and  a  half  millions  was  held  in  the  treasury.  To- 
day we  have  $2,421,461,747,  or  $35.40  per  capita,  of 
which  only  $1,169,390,080  is  paper,  and  every  dollar  of 
it  is  worth  100  cents! 


SO  UND  MONE  Y.  103 

'  'Your  oft  repeated  idea  is  that  only  what  you  call  pri- 
mary money — gold  and  silver — adds  to  the  value  of  proper- 
ty which  it  exchanges;  that  thus  all  paper  money  and  other 
evidences  of  indebtedness,  including  checks,  drafts,  bills 
of  exchange,  etc. ,  have  no  effect,  one  way  or  another,  on 
values.  This  is  an  utter  fallacy.  The  fact  is  that  not  10 
per  cent  of  the  exchanges  of  the  world  are  effected  by  the 
precious  metals  coined  into  money.  Sir  John  L,ubbock 
put  the  amount  of  such  money  in  England  at  less  than  5 
per  cent  of  paper  money  of  all  kinds.  You  are  obliged 
to  assume  this  fallacious  theory,  that  only  primary  money, 
or  gold  and  silver,  affects  values,  as  a  fact.  If  you  did 
not,  your  entire  system  would  tumble  like  a  house  of 
cards  for  the  reason  that  to-day  there  is  an  enormously 
larger  and  more  effective  circulation  of  money  in  the 
world  than  ever  before.  In  the  United  States,  while  the 
population  has  increased  60  per  cent  since  1873,  the  en- 
tire volume  of  currency  of  all  kinds,  gold,  silver,  checks, 
drafts  and  bills  of  exchange,  to  say  nothing  of  promis- 
sory notes,  is  over  three  hundred  per  cent  greater  than  it 
was  then! 

'  'This  goes  clearly  to  prove  that  the  theory  of  the  re- 
pudiators  of  just  debts,  .which  is  that  low  prices  are  the 
result  of  a  contraction  of  currency  by  the  demonetization 
of  silver,  is  utterly  and  mendaciously  false.  Money  was 
never  so  plentiful  and  so  cheap  in  England  as  it  is  to-day. 
It  is  going  a-begging  in  L,ondon  at  one  to  one  and  one- 
half  per  cent  on  mercantile  loans.  In  France  the  gold 
reserve  of  its  national  bank  has  passed  the  enormous  fig- 
ure of  2,100,000,000  of  francs,  nearly  every  franc  of 
which  is  represented  by  another  paper  franc  in  circulation. 
This  immense  monetary  inflation  ought  to  have  raised  the 
value  of  French  products  if  your  theory,  Mr.  Coin,  is  cor- 


104  SOUND  MONEY. 

rect.  And  yet  it  has  not  done  so.  Thus,  at  present  the 
cultivation  of  wheat  in  that  country  has  become  so  un- 
profitable that,  according  to  the  Paris  correspondent  of 
the  New  York  Tribune,  the  raising  of  wheat,  which  has 
been  the  chief  factor  in  that  country's  prosperity  for  a 
thousand  years,  has  become  so  unprofitable  that  whole 
farming  districts  are  gradually  losing  their  population." 

"France  is,  practically,  a  gold  standard  country,"  re- 
plied Coin.  "It  suffers  from  demonetization  in  common 
with  the  rest  of  the  world." 

"On  the  contrary,"  rejoined  the  witness,  "France  has 
all  the  benefits  which  you  claim  would  arise  from  remon- 
etization  in  an  enormous  volume  of  currency,  combined 
with  all  the  advantages  of  a  gold  standard  in  the  stability 
of  a  currency  which  never  fluctuates,  except  as  gold  may 
have  a  less  or  greater  purchasing  power,  and  none  of  the 
disadvantages  of  a  silver  standard  which  requires  two  sil- 
ver dollars  to  do  the  work  of  one  gold  dollar  not  only  in 
foreign  markets  but  also  in  its  own.  You  have  only  to 
look  at  the  condition  of  Mexico  to  realize  this  fact. 

"And  yet,  with  all  these  advantages,  the  prices  of 
commodities  in  France  have  not  advanced!" 

"Simply  because  they  are  measured  in  gold,"  per- 
sisted Coin. 

"Exactly,"  assented  Col.  Forrest,  as  he  was  about  to 
resume  his  seat,  "and  the  prices  of  commodities  in  every 
country  in  the  world  will  continue  to  be  measured  in  gold, 
the  United  States  included,  whether  we  remonetize  silver 
or  not.  If  we  adopt  a  silver  basis  gold  will  be  at  a  pre- 
mium of  100  per  cent." 

"With  silver  remonetized,"  interrupted  Coin,  "we 
can,  if  necessary,  by  act  of  Congress,  reduce  the  number 
of  grains  of  gold  in  a  dollar,  as  I  state  on  page  143  of  tny 


ta 


SOUND  MONEY.  105 

ok.       We  can  legislate  the  premium  out  of  gold!" 

"In  plain  English,  then,  the  result  will  be  that  as  com- 
modities will  be  measured  in  gold,  in  conformity  with  the 
markets  of  the  world,  prices  will  advance  100  per  cent 
while  labor,  after  a  fierce  industrial  conflict,  disastrous  to 
both  sides,  may  succeed  in  obtaining  an  advance  of  25 
per  cent  in  its  wages  and  will  find  itself  worse  off  by 
three-fourths  of  its  present  income  than  it  is  to-day.  The 
working  people  are  not  fools.  L,abor  will  never  put  it  in 
your  power  to  perpetrate  such  an  act  of  folly  and  to  de- 
grade itself  at  first  to  the  level  of  labor  in  Europe  and 
ultimately  to  that  of  Asia!" 

Col.  Forrest  resumed  his  seat  amid  a  perfect  ovation 
of  cheers.  For  the  first  time  the  workingmen  realized 
what  the  high  prices  promised  by  Coin  and  his  free  silver 
crowd  would  actually  mean.  But  their  eyes  had  been 
opened  by  the  action  of  Coin  in  casting  away  all  pretense 
of  bimetallism  and  coming  out  squarely  and  flat-footed  on 
a  single  standard  platform  of  silver.  , 

The  commission  adjourned  till  the  following  morning 
at  10  o'clock  at  the  same  place. 


106  SO  UND  MONE  Y. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  LIVELIEST  SESSION  YET. 

Interest  grew  in  the  proceedings  of  Labor's  Commission 
day  by  day,  and  in  both  political  and  labor  circles  noth- 
ing else  was  talked  of. 

When  the  fourth  session  was  called  to  order  on  the  fol- 
lowing morning  Plasterers'  hall  contained  just  seven  more 
men  than  had  been  there  on  the  previous  day.  They  had 
hung  a  plank  by  means  of  ropes  over  the  gallery  railing, 
and,  sitting  on  it,  listened  to  the  debate  in  constant  peril 
of  their  lives. 

Not  a  minute  was  wasted.  Everybody  was  on  sched- 
ule time,  and  as  the  bells  chimed  out  the  first  stroke  of  10 
o'clock  the  gavel  rapped  for  silence. 

"I  will  introduce,  as  the  first  witness,  Mr.  Robert  L. 
McCabe,"  said  Chairman  Clench,  "who  has  made  a  care- 
ful study  of  this  question.  Mr.  McCabe  is  too  well- 
known  as  a  friend  of  the  working  people  to  need  any  par- 
ticular remarks  from  me.  He  has  studied  this  question 
from  the  standpoint  of  a  man  whose  own  interests  are 
bound  up  in  the  prosperity  of  the  whole  community,  and 
as  such  we  may  be  sure  he  has  something  interesting  to 
say." 

The  big  blacksmith  seemed  quite  surprised  at  his  own 
fluency,  and  as  Mr.  McCabe,  a  representative  professional 
man,  stepped  to  the  front  he  was  cordially  received. 

"A  standard,"  he  began,  "must  possess  the  same 
qualities  as  the  thing  it  is  designed  to  measure.  A 
standard  pound  must  have  inherent  weight,  a  standard  yard 


* 


SOUND  MONEY.  107 

must  have  lineal  length,  and  a  standard  dollar  must  have 
intrinsic  value.  Twenty- three  and  two- tenth  grains  of 
gold  are  valued  at  100  cents.  Our  government  stamps 
this  amount  of  gold  a  dollar,  because  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  that  the  coinage  value  of  a  standard  dollar 
all  be  exactly  equal  to  its  bullion  value. 

'  'The  experience  of  the  United  States  with  a  double 
standard  has  been  the  experience  of  the  world.  During 
the  present  century  all  the  great  commercial  nations 
have  substituted  the  single  standard  of  value  for  the 
double  standard  without  discarding  the  use  of  silver  as  a 
medium  of  exchange.  They  have  chosen  gold  as  this 
standard,  because  it  is  divisible,  indestructible,  and  be- 
cause it  contains  larger  value  in  smaller  bulk,  and  fluctu- 
ates less  than  any  other  commodity.  It  is  an  impossibility 
to  have  an  absolutely  perfect  standard  of  value.  The 
length  of  a  thirty-six  inch  yard  will  be  exactly  the 
same  one  hundred  years  hence  as  it  is  now.  But  the 
value  of  a  dollar  may  change  in  a  week,  because  its 
value  is  estimated  according  to  the  amount  of  labor  or 
the  products  of  labor  it  will  buy,  as  well  as  our  desire 
to  possess  it  and  the  cost  of  its  production. 

"Gold  approaches  nearer  the  perfect  standard  than 
anything  else  because  the  demand  for  its  possession,  the 
cost  of  its  production  and  the  sources  of  its  supply  have 
been  comparatively  regular,  uniform  and  constant  from 
time  immemorial.  This  is  true  of  no  other  commodity. 
During  all  the  ages  silver  has  been  as  capricious  in  its 
fluctuations  as  the  mercury  in  a  Chicago  thermometer. 
It  lacks  the  necessary  constancy  of  value  for  a  standard, 
but  it  has  its  invaluable  uses  as  a  medium  of  exchange. 

'  'There  are  potent  reasons  that  appeal  to  Americans — 
who  have  become  world-wide  traders — to  maintain  the 


108  SOUND  MONEY. 

single  gold  standard.  To  prevent*  endless  confusion,  we 
must  keep  in  line  with  the  commercial  powers  of  the  earth. 
If  we  would  extend  our  commerce,  we  must  keep  in  concord 
with  the  world  by  observing  its  fixed  business  methods. 
We  are  a  great  and  important  part  of  the  world,  but  the 
world  is  still  greater  than  we,  and  can  get  along  without 
us  better  than  we  can  without  it.  We  depend  upon  it  to 
consume  our  surplus  of  wheat,  cattle,  corn,  cotton,  and 
our  surplus  of  all  other  stocks.  The  great  commercial 
firms  of  the  country,  such  as  those  headed  by  Marshall 
Field,  J.  V.  Farwell  and  John  Wanamaker,  must  observe 
certain  settled  and  uniform  rules,  if  they  would  transact 
business  together  with  dispatch,  economy  and  profit.  But 
if  one  firm  should  disregard  the  rules  of  business,  it  would 
do  so  at  the  hazard  of  incurring  ruin  and  disaster  which 
usually  result  from  such  a  course.  And  this  is  equally 
true  of  commerce  among  nations.  If  commercial  firms 
cannot  agree  as  to  the  regulations  of  business,  or  if  nations 
differ  as  to  the  wisdom ,  of  maintaining  our  present  gold 
standard,  then  they  should  confer  together  until  an  agree- 
ment is  reached.  The  advocates  of  silver  would  have  us 
repudiate  the  established  methods  of  the  world  by  adopt- 
ing silver  as  a  standard  of  value  at  a  ratio  of  16  to  i. 
They  inform  us  that  we  are  mightier  than  the  world  and 
that  by  pursuing  an  independent  course  we  can  coerce  the 
world  and  bring  it  to  our  feet. ' ' 

'  'You  are  inconsistent, ' '  interrupted  Coin.  '  'You  admit 
that  silver  has  its  invaluable  uses  as  a  medium  of  exchange, 
yet  you  advocate  a  single  gold  standard  and  approve  of 
the  demonetization  of  silver  which  has  resulted  in  the 
appreciation  of  the  value  of  gold  because  its  supply  is  not 
sufficient  to  meet  the  growing  wants  of  commerce.  All 
other  things  have  correspondingly  depreciated  in  value — 


SO  UND  MONE  K  109 

labor,  silver  and  commodities  included,  and  as  a  result  debt- 
ors are  required  to  pay  their  debts  in  gold,  worth  much 
more  than  the  money  they  borrowed,  on  account  of  the 
double  burden  you  have  thrown  on  gold  by  demonetizing 
and  degrading  its  fellow  servant,  silver." 

"That  is  the  false  foundation  upon  which  most  of  your 
influence  with  the  people  at  the  present  moment  rests," 
declared  Mr.  McCabe.  "Chairman  Clench  tells  me  that 
the  question  of  work,  wages  and  prices  has  been  reserved 
for  a  later  discussion  and  therefore  I  shall  simply  content 
myself  by  saying  that  it  is  not  true  that  gold  has  appreci- 
ated, that  it  is  true  that  silver  has  depreciated,  but  not 
because  of  demonetization  entirely,  or  even  mainly;  and 
it  is  also  true  that  by  the  universal  use  of  bank  checks 
and  drafts  and  a  limited  amount  of  paper  and  silver  the 
production  of  gold  is  so  fully  keeping  pace  with  the 
demand  for  it  that  your  idea  that  it  can  be  cornered  at  the 
caprice  of  combinations  of  capital  is  untenable. ' ' 

"To  fully  understand  that  gold  has  not  appreciated  it 
is  necessary  for  us  to  know  the  use  of  money  as  a  medium 
of  exchange,  as  distinguished  from  its  use  as  a  standard 
of  value.  We  can  derive  no  immediate  benefit  from  the 
actual  possession  of  money,  as  it  has  no  inherent  qualities 
which  immediately  satisfy  our  wants  or  gratify  our  desires- 
We  cannot  eat  it  and  we  cannot  Wear  it.  It  will  not 
transport  our  goods,  neither  will  it  carry  on  our  business. 
We  merely  use  it  as  a  means  to  attain  these  objects.  We 
are  indifferent  whether  these  objects  are  accomplished  by 
money  or  by  its  substitutes.  Since  we  can  derive  no 
direct  comfort,  benefit  or  profit  from  its  actual  possession, 
we  are  induced  to  deposit  it  in  banks  for  the  sake  of  con- 
venience and  safe  keeping.  It  is  accessible  for  our 
immediate  use  at  all  times.  When  we  are  not  using  it, 


110  SO  UND  MONE  Y. 

the  banks  allow  others  to  use  it.  By  this  means  it  is  con- 
stantly employed  mediating  exchanges  either  for  us  or  for 
others.  As  it  is  inconvenient  to  handle  the  money,  we 
pay  our  debts  and  make  our  purchases  with  bank  checks. 
This  method  of  doing  business  has  so  many  advantages 
that  it  has  become  co-extensive  with  civilization.  The 
bank  will  soon  be  the  universal  cashier  and  bookkeeper  of 
the  world." 

<fOh,  that's  the  banker's  old  argument  in  favor  of  a 
limited  or  contracted  currency  which  would  suit  him  be- 
cause it  would  tighten  his  grip  on  the  people  and  enable 
him  to  wring  a  higher  rate  of  usury  from  the  unfortunate 
borrower,"  asserted  Coin.  "What  the  bankers  don't 
want  is  generally  a  good  thing  for  the  people  to  have. 
The  people  want  silver  remonetized  so  that  with  a  great 
volume  of  currency  in  use  trade  will  revive  and  money 
cannot  be  cornered  to  the  detriment  of  68  millions  of  peo- 
ple for  the  benefit  of  a  few  bankers." 

This  attack  secured  applause  from  that  small  portion 
of  the  audience  which  had  not  yet  been  converted  from 
the  silver  heresy  and  these  few  made  up  in  noise  what 
they  lacked  in  numbers.  Mr.  McCabe  smiled  as  he  no- 
ticed the  effect  the  claptrap  had  on  these  irreconcilables 
and  continued: 

"Any  child  knows  that  yard  sticks  cannot  sell  calico, 
but  that  the  sale  of  calico  requires  the  use  of  yard  sticks. 
A  million  yard  sticks  would  not  increase  the  business  of 
Marshall  Field.  It  has  been  truly  said  by  some  one, 
'that  money  does  not  create  exchanges,  but  exchanges 
create  a  necessity  for  money. '  It  follows  from  this  aphor- 
ism, that  the  quantity  of  money  needed  for  a  country  does 
not  depend  upon  the  number  of  inhabitants,  but  rather 
upon  the  number  of  exchanges  and  the  commercial  meth- 


SO UND  MONE  Y.  Ill 

ods  of  making  these  exchanges.  A  large  per  capita  cir- 
culation will  not  increase  our  prosperity,  as  Col.  Forrest 
has  shown,  neither  will  a  large  number  of  yard  sticks 
increase  Marshall  Field's  business. 

"In  1892  our  per  capita  circulation  was  $24.47 — the 
largest  amount  we  had  ever  had — yet  our  prosperity  was 
suddenly  transformed  into  depressing  gloom,  and  for  two 
years  we  have  been  compelled  to  suffer  the  hardships  of 
unprecedented  adversity. 

"The  present  bullion  value  of  a  silver  dollar  is  50 
cents,  yet,  as  a  medium  of  exchange  it  does  all  the  work 
of  a  gold  dollar,  as  both  have  the  same  debt-paying  and 
purchasing  power.  Silver  has  this  power,  not  because 
the  government  has  stamped  it  a  dollar,  but  because  it  is 
the  policy  of  the  government  to  exchange  it  for  a  gold 
dollar  whenever  it  is  presented.  If  the  government  should 
fail  to  carry  out  this  policy  for  any  reason  whatever,  then 
the  purchasing  and  debt-paying  power  of  silver  would 
only  equal  its  present  bullion  value  of  50  cents.  As 
Mexico  does  not  maintain  such  a  policy,  the  coinage  value 
of  its  dollar  is  identical  with  its  bullion  value. 

1 '  Two  Mexican  silver  dollars,  containing  420  grains  arc 
daily  exchanged  in  the  City  of  Mexico  for  one  of  our  silver 
dollars,  which  contains  only  4.12  1-2  grains." 

'  'The  government  can  pass  a  law  fixing  a  value,  but  it 
cannot  fix  a  value  by  passing  a  law.  It  can  pass  a  law 
increasing  the  age  of  mortality,  but  this  will  not  suspend 
the  law  of  mortality  and  prolong  human  life.  It  can  pass 
a  law  fixing  the  value  of  silver,  but  this  will  not  suspend 
the  law  of  supply  and  demand  and  prevent  the  fluctua- 
tions of  its  value.  Government  has  not  sovereign  power 
over  natural  and  economic  laws.  It  is  merely  the  agent  of 
the  people  designed  to  act  with  intelligence  and  honesty. ' ! 


112  SOUND  MONEY. 

These  convincing  illustrations  of  the  fundamental 
principles  of  money  were  so  apt  and  so  readily  compre- 
hensible that  the  moment  the  witness  paused  the  audience 
immediately  burst  into  prolonged  cheering  and  it  was 
fully  a  minute  before  Mr.  McCabe  was  able  to  continue. 
Commissioner  Hobb's  honest  face  fairly  beamed,  Chair- 
man Clench  looked  convinced  and  Commissioner  Rafferty 
knitted  his  brows  and  settled  himself  in  his  chair,  evi- 
dently prepared  to  follow  the  witness  with  the  closest 
attention. 

' '  In  addition  to  gold  and  silver  as  media  of  exchange, ' ' 
continued  Mr.  McCabe  when  silence  had  been  restored, 
"we  also  have  a  paper  currency.  The  purchasing  and 
debt-paying  power  of  a  paper  dollar  varies  according  to 
our  estimate  of  the  ability  and  readiness  of  the  govern- 
ment to  redeem  it  in  gold.  At  one  time  during  the  civil 
war  our  paper  dollar  was  only  worth  40  cents  in  gold,  but 
when  the  government  resumed  specie  payments  in  1879  it 
immediately  became  the  equal  of  gold  in  debt-paying  and 
purchasing  power,  and  has  remained  so  ever  since.  Our 
currency  embraces  $1,169,390,080  of  paper,  and  $1,252,- 
071,667  in  gold  and  silver  coin  or  bullion  ready  for  the 
mint,  every  dollar  of  which  is  the  equal  of  the  other  in 
debt-paying  and  purchasing  power.'  Thus  far  the  supply 
of  gold  has  always  been  ample  to  sustain  a  safe  currency 
for  us.  I  say  a  safe  currency  as  distinguished  from 
a  debauched  and  unsound  currency.  So  long  as  we 
maintain  a  safe  currency  we  can  have  all  the  gold 
we  need — for  there  is  no  scarcity  for  legitimate  de- 
mands. The  world's  supply  of  gold  during  the  last 
forty-five  years  has  increased  50  per  cent  over  its  supplv 
during  the  three  preceding  centuries.  Gold  measures  the 
value  of  labor  as  well  as  of  commodities,  and  if  these  incon- 


SOUND  MONEY.  113 

gruous  facts  prove  anything  they  prove  that  the  value  of 
gold  has  remained  normal,  while  silver  has  depreciated 
on  account  of  its  enormous  production  beyond  the  demands 
of  the  world  since  the  discovery  of  our  tremendous  silver 
deposits  in  the  west  and  on  account  of  the  greatly  reduced 
cost  of  mining  them  owing  to  the  application  of  new  and 
scientific  processes. ' ' 

"You  are  wrong,"  interrupted  Coin,  once  more  brav- 
ing a  knock-down  blow.  "The  value  of  silver  is  the 
same  to-day  as  ever  it  was.  An  ounce  of  silver  will  buy 
as  much  wheat  as  it  ever  did.  Silver  has  stood  still 
while  the  value  of  gold  has  increased.  Now  suppose  that 
all  the  world  should  stop  using  corn,  barley,  oats — in 
fact  every  other  cereal  excepting  wheat;  what  would  be 
the  result?  The  value  of  wheat  would  increase,  wouldn't 
it?  That  is  just  what  happened  to  g»ld  when  silver  was 
demonetized  by  the  principal  commercial  nations  of  the 
world.  Take  another  illustration  which  fits  the  remone- 
tization  of  silver  in  our  own  country  independently  of  the 
action  of  the  rest  of  the  world.  Suppose  that  Congress 
should  pass  a  law  to-morrow  authorizing  the  purchase  by 
the  government  of  100,000  cavalry  horses  of  certain  sizes 
and  qualities.  The  government  would  enter  the  market 
to  get  these  horses  and  horses  would  advance  in  value — 
not  only  the  kind  of  horses  desired  but  also  other  horses 
for  which  there  would  be  a  demand  to  take  the  place  of 
the  horses  sold  to  the  government.  Horses  would  go  up, 
wouldn't  they?"  And  with  a  smile  of  triumph  the  irre- 
pressible Harvey  Coin  paused  for  a  reply.  He  got  it. 

"I  will  answer  your  second  question  first,"  said  Mr. 
McCabe.  '  'Your  government  demand  for  horses  is  sup- 
posed to  represent  the  demand  for  silver  if  free  coin- 
age should  be  established.  What  would  happen  would 


114  SOUND  MONEY. 

be  this:  Kvery  man  who  had  a  horse  to  sell  would  be  on 
hand  on  the  appointed  day  and  the  competition  of  the 
sellers  among  themselves  would  insure  the  government 
getting  the  animals  at  their  fair  commercial  value. ' ' 

"Yes,  but  if  there  were  less  than  100,000  horses  in  the 
country,"  objected  Coin,  "the  fair  commercial  value 
would  itself  rise  on  account  of  the  demand. ' ' 

"Temporarily,  perhaps,"  was  the  reply,  "but  the  in- 
flexible law  of  supply  and  demand  would  operate  and  the 
government  would  quickly  find  any  quantity — an  unlim- 
ited supply,  of  foreign  horses  at  its  disposal.  If  the  100,- 
ooo  horses  should  be  required  annually  for  an  unlimited 
or  unspecified  number  of  years,  hundreds  of  men  would 
go  into  the  business  of  raising  horses  and  presently  they 
would  be  cheaper  than  ever.  This  is  just  what  occurred 
under  the  Sherman  act.  The  Treasury  Department  was 
ordered  by  Congress  to  purchase  2,250  tons  of  silver,  per 
annum,  for  coinage  into  silver  dollars.  This  law  went 
into  effect  August  14,  1890.  During  the  year  1890  the 
production  of  silver  was  5,253.95  tons  and  the  price  rose 
from  an  average  of  93  cents  per  ounce  in  1889  to  an  aver- 
age of  $1.04  in  1890.  Stimulated  by  the  government 
purchase  of  2,250  tons  of  silver  annually,  the  production 
of  it  increased  by  457.33  tons  in  1891  and  the  average 
price  fell  to  98  cents.  In  1892  the  production  was 
1,118.54  tons  over  that  of  1890  and  the  average  price  fell 
to  87  cents.  In  1893  the  production  was  1,903.37  tons 
over  that  of  1890  and  the  price  fell  still  further  to  78 
cents.  Then  the  law  was  repealed. ' ' 

"And  a  good  thing,  too!"  shouted  a  man  in  the  audi- 
ence, and  laughter  mingled  with  applause  followed  the  ex- 
posure of  the  fallacy  of  Coin's  illustration.  Mr.  McCabe 
continued: 


SOUND  MONEY.  115 

"Now,  with  regard  to  your  wheat  story  you  are  more 
at  odds  with  common  sense  and  every  day  experience 
than  you  are  with  your  horse  proposition.  Your  wheat 
is  intended  to  represent  gold  and  you  want  all  the  world 
to  stop  using  every  other  cereal.  Then,  you  say,  up 
goes  the  price  of  wheat.  You  will  yourself  admit  the  ab- 
surdity of  your  comparison  if  you  reflect  for  a  moment 
that  the  world's  supply  of  wheat  is  represented  by  one 
year's  crop.  That  is  eaten  up  and  it  disappears  so  that 
the  demand  for  wheat  is  constant  and  continually  increas- 
ing with  the  increasing  population  of  the  world.  Its 
value  depends  upon  two  things — the  amount  of  supply  in 
proportion  to  the  demand  and  the  cost  of  production  and 
transportation.  With  gold  it  is  entirely  different.  Mul- 
hall  tells  us  that  45  per  cent  of  all  the  gold  produced 
goes  into  the  arts  and  manufactures  while  55  per  cent 
goes  into  coinage  or  remains  in  bars  of  bullion  for  the  set- 
tlement of  balances  of  trade  between  nations.  There  is  no 
telling  how  much  of  the  gold  manufactured  continues  in 
a  form  which  would  allow  it  to  be  put  into  the  melting 
pot  and  turned  into  bullion  at  short  notice;  but  that 
amount  must  be  at  least  35  per  cent  of  the  whole.  The 
amount  that  disappears  by  attrition  is  insignificant,  as 
Mulhall  tells  us  that  gold  coin  in  circulation  loses  only 
one  per  cent  from  this  cause  in  fifty  years.  Hence,  only 
10  per  cent  of  the  annual  production  of  gold  is,  like  the 
wheat,  used  up  and  lost  forever.  It  follows,  therefore, 
that  the  stock  of  gold  in  the  world  represents  the  accumula- 
tion of  the  centuries  and  is  permanently  increasing  at  the  rate 
of  90  per  cent  of  the  total  production  of  the  world  every  year. ' ' 

Again  the  audience  applauded  the  dissipation  of 
another  of  Coin's  bugaboo  bogus  theories.  Every  man  of 
them  knew  that,  bringing  the  matter  close  to  home,  the 


116  SOUND  MONEY, 

little  stock  of  gold  jewelry,  rings,  watches,  chains  and 
other  trinkets  in  his  own  family  had  accumulated  gradu- 
ally from  as  far  back  as  he  could  remember.  Every  man 
among  them  knew  that  such  articles  are  much  more 
widely  distributed  to-day  than  they  were  40  years  ago 
when  to  possess  a  gold  watch  and  chain  stamped  a  man 
as  a  person  of  some  importance  and  a  gold  headed  cane 
was  considered  a  badge  of  eminent  financial  respectability. 

"Now,  one  word  about  that  'horrible  crime'  of  1873, 
the  history  of  which  my  friend,  Prof.  L,aughlin,  is  pre- 
pared to  lay  fully  before  this  commission  if  it  is  so  desired, ' ' 
continued  Mr.  McCabe. 

'  'It  certainly  is  desired, ' '  Chairman  Clench  assured 
him.  "We  are  here  to  investigate  all  the  facts  in  the 
interest  of  the  wage  workers  who  intend  to  vote  on  this 
question  as  their  own  interests  dictate;  irrespective  of 
what  banks,  bankers,  silver  miners,  gold  miners  or  politi- 
cians may  desire. ' ' 

The  vigorous  cheer  with  which  this  sentiment  was  re- 
ceived showed  beyond  question  that  party  names  and 
party  ties  would  count  for  little  in  the  impending  struggle 
between  sound  money  and  a  debased  coinage. 

"It  is  recklessly  asserted  by  the  silver  monometallists 
that  a  great  crime  was  committed  by  the  theoretical  de- 
monetization of  silver  in  1873,  and  that  the  law'was 
passed  by  questionable  methods  and  in  a  clandestine  man- 
ner at  the  instance  of  a  conspiracy  of  capitalists.  If  it  had 
been  true  that  there  had  been  a  conspiracy  among  capital- 
ists to  enhance  the  value  of  money,  they  would  undoubt- 
edly have  had  gold  demonetized,  because  our  up  to  that 
time  insignificant  stock  of  silver  money  had  utterly  disap- 
peared. These  conspirators  never  had  any  existence  ex- 
cept in  the  minds  of  men  themselves  so  wicked  and  cor- 


SOUND  MONEY.  117 

rupt  that  they  find  it  natural  to  ascribe  only  wicked  and 
corrupt  motives  to  others.  If  there  had  been  any  such, 
and  they  had  intended  to  run  a  corner  on  money,  they 
certainly  would  have  cornered  the  scarcer  metal,  which 
at  that  time  was  silver;  and  their  first  act  would  have  been 
to  secure  the  coinage  of  silver  dollars,  not  to  prevent  it,  in 
order  to  carry  out  their  scheme 7" 

Again  the  applause  was  deafening  as  this  point  was 
made,  and  perhaps  the  most  interested  man  in  the  hall 
was  Commissioner  RafTerty.  His  sympathy  for  silver 
was  almost  entirely  the  result  of  his  intense  hatred  of 
England.  He  had  been  persuaded  that  the  demonetiza- 
tion of  silver  was  the  result  of  a  base  conspiracy  of  British 
capital  which  had  succeeded  in  bribing  American  sena- 
tors and  congressmen  in  1873  to  commit  an  act  that 
ranked  in  cowardly  perfidy  with  the  treason  of  Benedict 
Arnold.  By  skillfully  playing  upon  this  prejudice  and 
plying  him  with  plausible  falsehoods,  fraudulent  statistics 
and  false  logical  deductions,  prepared  with  infinite  craft 
and  cunning  by  the  bonanza  kings  and  their  hirelings, 
Coin  had  easily  convinced  him  that  free  coinage  was  in- 
dispensible  to  the  prosperity  of  this  country. 

And  Rafferty  only  stands  as  the  type  of  a  large  and 
ordinarily  intelligent  class  of  the  community. 

"Whenever  property  interests  and  humanity  have 
come  in  conflict,  England  has  ever  been  the  enemy  of 
human  liberty, ' '  said  Coin  as  soon  as  the  applause  stopped. 
"All  reforms  with  those  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  in  her 
power  have  been  won  by  the  sword.  She  yields  only  to 
force.  England  is  the  creditor  nation  of  the  globe  and 
collects  hundreds  of  million  of  dollars  annually  in  gold, 
from  the  rest  of  the  world.  We  are  paying  her  two  hun- 
dred millions  yearly  in  interest." 


118  SOU  ft  D  MONEY. 

"In  gold?"  asked  Editor  Evans. 

"Yes,  in  gold,"  assented  Coin.  "She  demands  it  in 
gold.  The  contracts  call  for  it  in  gold.  Her  policy  ever 
since  1816  has  been  to  draw  gold  from  her  victims  and 
then  lend  it  back  to  them  at  high  interest.  You  will  find 
that  statement  in  my  book  on  page  132  and  elsewhere." 

"It  is  a  rather  remarkable  circumstance,"  said  Editor 
Evans,  "that  our  total  gross  exports  of  gold,  not  net 
exports,  remember,  including  ores  and  copper  matte  con- 
taining gold,  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June,  1894, 
amounted  to  exactly  $77,162,228.  Will  you  kindly  ex- 
plain how  England  managed  to  get  $200,000,000  out  of 
$77,000,000?" 

"She  consumed  all  of  our  balance  of  trade,  all  our 
annual  gold  production  of  about  $40,000,000,  and  drew 
on  our  surplus  stock  of  gold  for  the  deficiency;  as  I  stated 
in  an  article  in  the  Chicago  Record  over  my  own  signa- 
ture," replied  Coin,  confident  that  he  had  very  cleverly 
lifted  himself  out  of  a  very  bad  scrape. 

"If  Commissioner  Rafferty  will  kindly  open  the  Treas- 
ury Report,  which  is  at  his  elbow,  at  page  282,  I  will 
show  that  Mr.  Coin  seems  to  be  absolutely  incapable  of 
telling  the  truth,"  said  the  editor,  who,  by  this  time,  was 
mad  clear  through  at  the  unbounded  dishonesty  of  "the 
little  school-master."  Rafferty  did  as  he  had  been  re- 
quested, and  Evans  continued: 

"Is  it  not  true  that  we  exported  to  Germany,  out  of 
that  seventy-seven  millions  of  gold,  twenty-eight  million 
eight  hundred  and  eleven  thousand — skip  the  hundreds?" 
Rafferty  quickly  added  two  lines  of  figures  and  replied: 

"The  Treasury  Report  so  states." 

"Does  not  the  same  table  show  that  we  exported  to 
France  fifteen  million,  four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand?" 


SOUND  MONEY.  119 

"It  does,"  said  Rafferty. 

'  'And  to  Cuba  twelve  million,  three  hundred  and  fifty- 
one  thousand?" 

"That  is  the  amount,"  said  Rafferty. 

"Now,  please  tell  Mr.  Coin  and  this  audience  how 
much  gold  England  got  out  of  the  seventy-seven  millions. 
Give  the  amount  in  full  and  make  it  as  close  to  two  hun- 
dred millions  as  the  truth  allows, ' '  cautioned  the  editor 
with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye. 

"14,853,500  dollars,"  read  the  Commissioner.  He 
could  hardly  believe  his  eyes  and  looked  at  his  mentor  in 
undisguised  amazement. 

"How  about  that  forty  millions  of  gold  production, 
Mr.  Coin?"  inquired  the  editor.  "And  while  you  are  at 
it,  will  you  kindly  state  what  sum  John  Bull  succeeded  in 
getting  out  of  our  gold  reserve  in  the  treasury?  We  have 
already  accounted  for  fifty-six  and  one-half  millions  out  of 
the  seventy-seven  millions  without  counting  England's  fif- 
teen millions.  I  want  to  know  where  she  got  the  balance 
of  that  two  hundred  millions  in  gold?' '  Coin  did  the  most 
sensible  thing  he  could  have  done  under  the  circumstances. 
He  said  wearily: 

"I  give  it  up.  Last  year  must  have  been  a  pretty 
bad  one  for  British  investors. ' ' 

"Not  so  very  bad,"  replied  the  editor.  "If  one  is  to 
judge  by  the  amount  of  gold  imported  into  England  it 
was  next  to  the  best  on  record.  The  total  gross  imports 
were  almost  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  millions  and  the 
net  imports  twenty-six  millions.  The  biggest  year  on 
record  for  imports  was  1891,  when  one  hundred  and  forty- 
seven  and  one-half  millions,  gross,  and  nearly  thirty  mill- 
ions, net,  were  the  amounts  drawn  by  British  investors  from 
all  parts  of  the  world.  This  was  not  all  interest,  by  any 


120  SOUND  MONEY. 

means.  Much  of  it  was  capital  withdrawn  from  invest- 
ment in  this  country  in  the  process  of  liquidation  which 
followed  the  failure  of  Baring  Bros,  in  1890,  and  the  fear 
of  what  these  gentlemen  are  urging — free  silver  coinage. 

"Now,  sir,  have  you  the  effrontery  to  tell  this  audience 
that  you  spoke  the  truth  when  you  stated  to  this  commis- 
sion that  England  annually  drew  hundreds  of  millions  of 
dollars  in  gold  from  her  victims?' ' 

Coin' s  assurance  had  deserted  him.    He  made  no  reply. 

"If  Commissioner  Raff erty  will  turn  to  page  344  he 
will  find  our  gold  exports  tabulated."  Rafferty  did  so 
and  Evans  continued:  "Did  we  ever  export  two  hundred 
millions  in  a  year,  all  told,  Commissioner?" 

"No,  sir,"  replied  Rafferty,  "the  largest  amount  was 
in  '64 — about  eighty-nine  millions." 

"The  result  of  the  war,"  commented  the  editor. 
"The  next  highest?" 

"In  round  numbers,  eighty-six  and  one-half  millions 
in  1893." 

'  'The  result  of  the  silver  panic.     And  the  next?' ' 

"The  sixty-eight  millions  in  1891,"  replied  the 
commissioner,  who  was  dazed  by  the  results  of  the  day's 
exposures.  '  'After  that  the  high  numbers  are  fifty  mil- 
lions in  '89,  sixty-four  millions  in  '68,  sixty- three  mil- 
lions in  '66,  and  sixty  millions  in  '71." 

'  'That's  enough,  thank  you, ' '  said  the  editor.  "From 
1873  to  1894,  inclusive,  we  exported,  net,  only  $5, 538, 423 
per  annum  on  the  average,  or  a  total  of  $116,306,880 — 
less  thaft  this  mythical  $200,000,000  a  year  which 
Coin  says  England  wrests  from  us  as  interest.  From 
1873  to  1891,  we  imported,  net,  $32,852,482,  and  would 
have  continued  this  profitable  state  of  affairs  had  it  not 
been  for  the  silver  agitation  and  its  resulting  panic." 


SOUND  MONEY.  121 

This  statement  of  the  editor  was  received  with  cheers. 
"As  poor  old  Story  used  to  say,  'there's  another  lie 
nailed,'  "  he  remarked,  sotto  voce,  as  he  resumed  his  seat 
beside  Col.  Forrest. 

'  'The  money  lenders  of  the  United  States, ' '  continued 
Coin,  "who  own  substantially  all  of  our  money,  have  a 
selfish  interest  in  maintaining  the  gold  standard.  They 
will  not  yield.  They  believe  that  if  the  gold  standard  can 
survive  for  a  few  years  longer  the  people  will  get  used  to 
it — get  used  to  their  poverty — and  quietly  submit. 

'  'These  men  are  seeking  to  rivet  upon  us  the  gold 
policy  of  Kngland,  with  nothing  but  gold  to  be  the  pri- 
mary money  of  this  country.  Their  policy  has  driven 
the  administration  to  go  to  the  pawnbrokers  of  England 
to  get  gold  enough  to  sustain  this  great  government." 

This  cowardly  allusion  to  the  recent  bond  sale  by  the 
government,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  action  of  the  Cleve- 
land Administration  had  been  indorsed  by  all  the  thinking 
men  and  the  newspapers  of  the  land,  irrespective  of  party 
affiliations,  brought  Mr.  McCabe,  himself  a  staunch  and 
prominent  Republican,  to  his  feet  in  a  moment,  in  defense 
of  the  only  course  which  could  possibly  have  saved  the 
United  States  from  an  inevitable  fall  to  a  silver  basis  and 
the  precipitation  of  the  most  terrible  financial  panic  in  the 
history  of  the  nations,  a  panic  which  would  have  shaken 
the  commerce  of  the  world  from  center  to  circumference. 

"We  are  now  stranded  with  a  currency,"  he  declared, 
'  'which  is  kept  at  par  only  by  the  stubborn  determination 
of  President  Cleveland.  He  has  patriotically  declared 
that  he  will  hypothecate  the  last  dollar  of  American  credit 
to  get  the  gold  that  is  necessary  to  maintain  our  great  mass 
of  silver  at  par.  We  were  not  compelled  to  beg  for  gold 
between  1879  and  1885,  as  we  are  now  doing.  We  had 


122  SO  UND  MONE  Y. 

an  abundance  of  it,  and  it  stayed  with  us  because  its  in- 
tegrity was  not  threatened  by  the  depreciating  influences 
of  silver. 

"We  were  not  contented  with  this  fruitful  period  that 
followed  resumption  when  we  had  but  $25,000,000  of  gold 
and  scarcely  any  silver,  but  we  must  try  the  experiment 
of  increasing  our  prosperity  by  increasing  the  volume  of 
depreciated  silver.  We  have  sadly  learned  that  the  result 
is  the  reverse  of  what  was  claimed  and  expected. 

. '  'Two  years  ago  we  had  about  $600,000,000  of  gold 
and  $620,000,000  of  silver,  but  this  great  addition  of 
silver  to  our  currency  has  not  prevented,  but  has  been  the 
direct  cause  of,  the  present  widespread  financial  depres- 
sion. When  I  consider  that  this  is  the  result  of  the  limited 
coinage  of  silver,  I  am  appalled  to  think  of  the  paroxysms 
of  commerce  and  universal  despair  that  will  follow  the 
free  and  unlimited  coinage  of  this  fluctuating  metal.  Our 
present  thralldom  would  only  be  the  evening  of  a  long 
night  of  intense  suffering. ' ' 

''They'd  better  listen  to  reason  before  it's  too  late," 
shouted  a  big  fellow,  who  had  been  a  constant  attendant 
at  every  session. 

"That's  the  circus  man  again,"  said  Hobbs,  smiling. 

"If  people  will  not  listen  to  reason  now,  they  will  be 
required  to  learn  wisdom  with  an  empty  stomach,  and 
gather  knowledge  in  ragged  clothes,"  replied  McCabe, 
and  the  audience  applauded.  They  were  evidently  satis- 
fied that  he  knew  what  he  was  talking  about.  The  wit- 
ness continued: 

'  'The  grasp  of  hard  times  will  not  be  relaxed  until 
the  agitators  for  a  depreciated  currency  are  beaten  into 
harmless  silence.  Even  now  capital  is  eager  to  plunge  into 
American  enterprises  and  reap  profits  from  an  abundant 


SOUND  MONEY.  123 

and  common  welfare.  But  we  can  entice  it  back  only  by 
giving  it  the  positive  assurance  that  we  will  always  be 
honest  enough  to  return  what  it  gives  us,  and  that  we  will 
not  return  a  5o-cent  dollar  for  its  zoo-cent  dollar. 

' '  Until  our  intentions  as  to  the  present  issue  of  free 
silver  are  definitely  known,  capital  will  continue  to  shun 
our  investments.  We  must  first  convince  it  that  we  are 
not  joined  to  the  idol  of  depreciated  silver.  It  is  impos- 
sible for  us  to  have  a  safe  system  of  currency  until  gold 
is  indisputably  established  as  our  single  standard  of  value. 
Around  this  standard  we  can  construct  a  currency  that 
will  be  the  equal  of  the  best  in  the  world.  We  must  fix  the 
center  pole  before  we  spread  the  tent.  We  must  reaffirm 
our  single  standard  before  we  can  readjust  our  currency." 

The  applause  and  cheering  which  greeted  the  last 
words  of  Mr.  McCabe  amounted  to  an  ovation,  and  the 
speaker  was  obliged  to  rise  and  bow  several  times  before 
the  audience  would  be  satisfied.  After  he  had  sat  down, 
Chairman  Clench  said,  consulting  his  memoranda,  "Mr. 
McCabe  remarked,  a  short  time  ago,  that  Prof.  Laughlin 
was  able  to  give  us  the  history  of  what  Mr.  Coin  continually 
refers  to  as  'the  crime  of  1873.'  I  confess  I'm  in  the 
dark  about  that  crime,  and,  if  it  is  agreeable  to  the  gen- 
tleman, we'd  like  to  hear  from  him." 

"The  truth  about  that  matter,  and  the  whole  truth, 
can  be  quickly  told,"  said  the  professor.  "I  have  herj 
the  books  to  which  I  shall  refer,  and  it  will  perhaps  b  ; 
satisfactory  to  Commissioner  Rafferty  if  I  leave  them  in  hi ; 
charge  to  be  referred  to  by  you  gentlemen,  when  you  writ  2 
your  report. ' '  So  saying  he  handed  the  books  to  the  com 
missioner.  They  consisted  of  House  Executive  Documents 
N°-  3°7)  2(t  Session,  4.1  st  Congress,  a  copy  of  the  U'ntrl 
States  statutes,  and  a  volume  of  the  Congressional  Globe, 


124  SOUND  MONEY. 

''No  codification  of  the  mint  laws,"  he  began,  "had 
been  made  since  1837,  and  a  complete  revision  of  all 
technical  matters  of  assayage  and  coinage  was  undertaken 
in  1870.  ,  An  attempt  was  made  to  get  as  nearly  a  perfect 
system  as  possible.  Consequently  the  authorities  sent 
out  to  scores  of  experts  the  new  provisions  for  criticism. 
Many  replies  came  in  and  can  all  be  found  in  the  volume 
of  documents  I  have  handed  you.  In  this  original  bill, 
sent  out  for  suggestions,  a  silver  dollar  of  384  grains 
standard  weight  was  proposed,  or  one  just  equal  to  the 
dollar's  value  of  subsidiary  coins  issued  since  1853.  In 
the  beginning  it  was  clear  that  the  old  silver  dollar  piece 
was  to  be  dropped.  This  was  noticed  in  the  replies  of  the 
experts;  and  Robert  Tatterson,  of  Philadelphia,  among 
others,  spoke  of  it  as  follows: 

"  'The  silver  dollar,  half-dims  and  3-cent  piece  are  dispensed 
with  by  this  amendment.  Gold  becomes  the  standard  money,  of 
which  the  gold  dollar  is  the  unit.  Silver  is  subsidiary.' 

"Dr.  lyinderman,  at  one  time  Director  of  the  Mint, 
also  said: 

"  'Section  u  reduces  the  weight  of  the  silver  dollar  from  412^ 
grains  to  384  grains.  It  would  be  better,  in  my  opinion,  to  discon- 
tinue its  issue  altogether.  The  gold  dollar  is  really  the  legal  unit 
and  measure  of  value. ' 

'  'The  bill  was  submitted  to  congress  by  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  April  25,  1870,  and  after  having  been 
printed  thirteen  times,  after  having  been  discussed  to  the 
extent  of  14.4.  columns  of  the  '  Congressional  Globe, '  it  did 
not  become  a  law  until  Feb.  12,  1873.  The  act  as  finally 
passed  is  as  follows,  so  far  as  it  is  of  interest  to  us: 

"  'Sec.  14.  That  the  gold  coins  of  the  United  States  shall  be  a 
one-dollar  piece,  which,  at  the  standard  weight  of  twenty-five  and 
eight-tenths  grains,  shall  be  the  unit  of  value.  [Then  follow  direc- 
tions as  to  other  gold  coins.] 


SOUND  MONEY.  125 

"  'Sec.  15.  That  the  siver  coins  of  the  United  States  shall  be  a 
trade  dollar,  a  half  dollar,  or  fifty-cent  piece,  a  quarter  dollar,  or 
twenty-five-cent  piece,  a  dime,  or  ten-cent  piece;  and  the  weight  of 
the  trade  dollar  shall  be  420  grains  troy;  the  weight  of  the  half  dol- 
lar shall  be  twelve  grams  and  one-half  of  a  gram;  the  quarter  dollar 
and  the  dime  shall  be  respectively  one-half  and  one-fifth  of  the 
weight  of  said  half  dollar,  and  said  coins  shall  be  a  legal  tender  at 
their  nominal  value  for  any  amount  not  exceeding  $5  in  any  one 
payment. 

"  'Sec.  17.  That  no  coins,  either  of  gold,  silver  or  minor  coin- 
age, shall  hereafter  be  issued  from  the  mint  other  than  those  of  the 
denominations,  standards  and  weights  herein  set  forth.' 

"This  is  the  whole  of  the  much-famed  act  of  1873, 
which  deals  with  the  'demonetization'  of  silver.  In  the 
discussions  in  Congress  no  opposition  whatever  was  mani- 
fested to  the  omission  of  the  412^  grain  silver  dollar; 
because  it  had  not  been  in  circulation  since  1840.  The 
silver  dollar  was  dropped  simply  because,  being  worth 
more  than  iocr  cents  in  gold,  it  had  not  been  possible  to 
keep  it  in  concurrent  circulation  with  gold. 

"The  act  of  1873  simply  accepted  the  situation  which 
had  been  apparent  in  1849  and  had  already  been  indi- 
cated by  the  act  of  1853. 

"The  act  of  1873  did  not  change  anything  not  already 
accomplished  by  the  logic  of  events.  Silver  dollars  were 
not  driven  out  of  circulation  by  the  act  of  1873,  which 
dropped  out  the  dollar  piece  of  412^  grains  because  it 
had  not  been  in  circulation  for  twenty-five  years  and  more. 

"It  was  in  1853  that  the  real  adoption  of  the  gold 
standard  took  place.  In  the  act  of  that  year  Congress, 
after  reviewing  our  experience  since  1792,  consciously 
maintained  the  machinery  by  which  silver  dollars  were 
being  kept  out  of  circulation,  and  frankly  avowed  its  inten- 
tion to  then  create  a  single  gold  standard.  And  from 


126  SOUND  MONEY. 

1853  to  the  suspension  of  specie  payments,  Dec.  31,  1861, 
we  had  only  gold  as  a  standard  in  this  country. 

'  'And  the  land  prospered  and  waxed  fat,  without  any 
of  the  silver  dollars.  They  were  objects  of  admiration, 
to  be  seen  only  in  museums.  Being  worth  more  than  100 
cents  in  gold  no  one  was  clamoring  for  their  use  with 
which  to  pay  debts.  It  was  only  after  1876,  when  their 
value  had  fallen  below  100  cents  in  gold,  that  the  cries 
•went  up  to  heaven  for  silver  dollars  with  which  to  scale 
indebtedness.  That  is  a  significant  historical  fact.  The 
act  of  1873,  then,  only  recognized  existing  conditions, 
already  accepted  by  the  act  of  1853.  The  following  table 
will  disclose  the  whole  history  of  the  enactment  at  a 
glance: 

Procedure.  Senate.         House. 

Submitted  by  secretary  of  the  treasury.  .April  25,  '70 
Referred  to  senate  finance  committee.  .  .April  28,  '70 

500  copies  printed May     2.  '70 

Submitted  to  house June  25, '  70 

Reported,  amended  and  ordered  printed .  Dec.    19,  '70 

Debated Jan.       9,  '71 

Passed  by  vote  of  36  to  14 Jan.     10,  '71 

Senate  bill  ordered  printed Jan.    13,  '71 

Bill  reported  with  substitute  and  recom- 
mitted   Feb.    25, '71 

Original  bill  reintroduced  and  printed. .  Mar.     9,  '71 

Reported  and  debated . . .- Jan.      9,  '72 

Recommitted Jan.     10,  '72 

Reported  back,  amended  and  printed. .  Feb.    13,  '72 

Debated April    9,  '72 

Amended  and  passed  by  vote  of  1 10  to 

13 May   27,  '72 

Printed  in  senate May     29,  '72 

Reported,  amended  and  printed Dec.      16,  '72 

Reported,  amended  and  printed Jan.         7,  '73 

Passed  senate Jan.       17,  '73 

Printed   with    amendments,  conference 

committee  appointed Jan.  21,  '73" 

Became  a  law  Feb.  12,  1873 

This  calm  and  dispassionate  review  of  the  real  facts  in 
connection  with  John  Sherman's  "horrible  crime,"  as 


SOUND  MONEY. 

frequently  and  recklessly  alleged  by  Coin  and  his  friends, 
was  the  more  readily  and  confidently  received  because  of 
two  facts — the  distinguished  position  and  honorable  repu- 
tation of  Professor  Laughlin,  who  presented  it,  and  the 
well  known  and  often  proved  mendacity  of  the  now 
notorious  Coin,  who  had  been  one  of  the  principal  agents 
in  disseminating  the  outrageous  story.  People  did  not  ap- 
plaud so  much  when  the  Professor  got  through  as  they 
had  when  he  demonstrated  that  the  so-called  crime  of  '73 
had  been  committed  twenty  years  earlier,  and  that  nobody 
seemed  to  have  found  out  until  forty  years  afterward  that 
the  "awful  deed  of  demonetization' '  had  been  done.  Coin 
had  already  been  so  thoroughly  discredited  that  the  ex- 
posure of  any  further  mendacity  on  his  part  elicited  inter- 
est rather  than  surprise. 

Edward  Atkinson,  of  Boston,  the  eminent  authority  on 
social  and  political  economy,  whose  contributions  on 
these  subjects  have  been  widely  read  and  studied,  was 
next  introduced.  Mr.  Atkinson  commenced  by  say- 
ing: 

"There  are  two  kinds  of  fools  in  this  world.  One 
consists  of  the  natural  fools,  and  to  describe  the  other  a 
swear  word  is  necessary.  That  swear  word  is  well  ap- 
plied when  Mr.  Coin  begins  to  talk  about  banks  and 
bankers  owning  all  the  gold  and  trying  to  oppress  the 
community  by  forcing  the  use  of  gold  money  or  its 
equivalent. 

"Money  made  of  gold  requires  no  force.  Everybody 
that  can  get  it  wants  it.  It  is  only  cheap  silver  dollars 
that  require  force  to  make  a  man  take  'em.  The  class  of 
condemned  fools  of  the  silver-crank  type  try  to  make  the 
natural  fools  believe  that  banks  and  bankers  conspire 
against  them. 


128  SO  UND  MONE  Y. 

"Banks  and  bankers  own  and  keep  no  more  gold 
than  is  necessary  to  enable  them  to  pay  their  debts. 

"If  there  is  one  standard  by  which  to  judge  of  the 
relative  ignorance  or  intelligence  of  a  community  it  is 
their  intelligent  support  and  use  of  banks  or  their 
ignorant  opposition  to  them.  The  bank  is  the  next 
friend  to  the  farmer,  the  mechanic  and  the  tradesman  if  it 
is  rightly  organized  and  safely  conducted. 

"If  you  find  a  community  that  will  not  support  banks 
then  you  are  sure  to  find  a  community  of  ignorant  peo- 
ple whom  it  is  not  safe  to  trust,  and  who  may  worry 
along  on  cheap  silver,  if  they  can  get  it,  or  any  other  kind 
of  money  that  their  ignorance  will  permit  them  to  get — 
hard  to  get  at  that. 

"The  country  was  never  in  a  stronger,  more  prosper- 
ous or  more  progressive  condition  than  in  the  years  1891 
and  1892,  so  far  as  all  the  facts  making  for  prosperity 
are  concerned,  except  for  the  condition  of  the  currency. 
Then  came  the  silver  craze,  promoted  mainly  by  the  own- 
ers of  silver  mines  and  smelting  furnaces.  This  petty 
silver  industry  gave  employment  in  1890  to  a  force  of 
only  about  33,000  men,  half  of  whom  derived  the  silver 
from  lead  or  copper  ores. ' ' 

"That's  all  very  fine,"  interrupted  Coin,  who  was 
smarting  under  the  roasting  he  had  received,  "but  what 
was  the  value  of  the  product  of  those  33,000  men?" 

"Their  total  product  in  any  given  year,"  remarked 
the  sage,  "was  less  in  value  by  one-half,  or  more,  than 
the  national  product  of  hen's  eggs." 

At  this  sharp  reply  there  was  a  roar  of  laughter  which 
Mr.  Atkinson  checked  by  a  gesture  and  said,  "That  state- 
ment is  not  a  joke,  gentlemen,  it  is  the  truth  as  given  in 
the  census  report.  With  an  audacity  in  inverse  propor- 


SOUND  MONEY.  12<) 

tion  to  their  importance,  and  being  in  control  of  a  num- 
ber of  seats  in  the  senate  in  inverse  proportion  to  the 
number  of  persons  represented,  they  have  spread  abroad 
the  delusion  that  the  people  need  cheap  money. 

"They  are  attempting  to  put  bad  money  upon  the 
people  by  acts  of  legal  tender;  that  is  to  say,  money 
which  will  not  stand  the  hammer  test.  The  test  of  true 
money  is  the  hammer.  If  gold  coin  can  be  placed  upon 
an  anvil  or  in  the  melting  pot  and  reduced  to  bullion,  it 
is  worth  as  much  after  it  is  hammered  smooth  or  melted 
as  it  purports  to  be  worth  in  the  coin.  If  silver  be  ham- 
mered smooth  or  melted,  it  is  worth  only  half  as  much 
as  it  purports  to  be  worth  in  coin. 

"In  this  effort  to  defraud  the  great  mass  of  the  people 
by  assuming  a  false  appearance  of  what  is  called  bimetall- 
ism, in  their  effort  to  put  this  country  upon  a  single 
standard  of  a  5o-cent  dollar,  these  men  suddenly  brought 
doubt  and  discredit  upon  the  Nation.  The  panic  ensued; 
credit  ceased;  constructive  enterprise  stopped.  Hundreds 
of  thousands  of  people  who  were  ordinarily  engaged  in 
constructive  work  and  in  providing  for  future  need  were 
discharged  from  work  for  lack  of  credit.  Prices  were 
forced  below  the  cost  of  production-,  and  for  two  years 
the  country  has  paid  the  penalty  of  this  delusion  of  cheap 
money  and  the  silver  craze. 

"The  pretext  under  which  this  nefarious  effort  has 
been  conducted  is  that  we  must  raise  prices.  For  whose 
benefit  are  prices  to  be  raised  by  tampering  with  the  cur- 
rency and  destroying  the  credit  of  the  dollar?  Prices 
were  raised  in  that  way  by  the  issue  of  the  legal-tender 
notes  during  the  war.  Prices  in  1865  went  up  double, 
treble,  quadruple  what  they  had  been.  How  about 
wages?  Did  they  go  up  double,  treble,  quadruple?  Not 


130  SO  UNO  MONE  Y. 

a  bit.  A  day's  work  of  an  honest,  industrious  man  in 
1865  would  only  buy  for  him  two-thirds  as  much  food, 
fuel,  clothing  and  shelter  as  he  enjoyed  in  1860." 

Again  a  reference  to  the  days  of  a  depreciated  cur- 
rency and  an  allusion  to  the  inconvenience  and  suffering 
it  wrought  brought  down  the  house.  The  big  circus 
man  arose  in  his  place  and  said: 

"I  was  a  candy  butcher  in  those  days  with  P.  T. 
Barnum's  circus,  and  we  wouldn't  let  folks  even  look  at  a 
little  sack  of  peanuts  for  less  than  a  2  5 -cent  shiuplaster- 
Lemonade  was  a  quarter,  or  three  for  half  a  dollar,  and 
my  pay  was  twelve  dollars  a  month  and  my  board. ' ' 

"If  your  pay  was  low  it  wasn't  because  there  wasn't 
sufficient  currency,"  answered  Mr.  Atkinson,"  for  the 
government  turned  out  greenbacks  about  as  fast  as  they 
could  be  printed.  But  to  return  to  silver.  We  are  using 
more  silver  in  this  country,  and  in  the  world,  than  we 
ever  did  before  for  money;  the  demand  is  constant  and  it 
always  will  be;  but  the  only  safe  way  to  use  it  is  to  limit 
the  coinage,  not  to  try  to  force  it  upon  the  people  who 
don't  want  it.  Our  only  security  is  to  make  all  the  sil- 
ver notes,  government  notes,  and  every  other  kind  of 
representative  money  payable  or  redeemable  only  in  gold 
coin. 

"We  have  the  command  of  the  gold  of  the  world. 
We  produce  food,  fibers  and  metals  which  the  world  must 
have.  We  can  spare  almost  all  the  foreign  goods  that  we 
import  if  we  want  gold  for  wheat  and  cotton.  When  we 
want  gold  to  use  for  money,  we  can  have  all  the  foreign 
capital  we  want,  on  a  gold  basis,  in  all  our  constructive 
enterprises.  What  fools  foreigners  would  be  to  trust  their 
capital,  now  on  a  solid  gold  basis,  to  people  who  pro- 
pose to  pay  them  in  cheap  silver  whether  they  want  it 


SO  UNO  MONE  Y.  131 

or  not!  Such  men  —  those  who  have  capital  to  lend  — 
belong  to  neither  class  of  the  fools  that  I  have  re- 
ferred to. 

They  keep  their  money. 

The}^  refuse  to  trust  silver  lunatics,  and  they  have 
been  right.  When  we  are  fit  to  be  trusted,  as  we  shall 
be  when  this  silver  free  coinage  craze  is  stamped  out,  we 
shall  have  a  boom  in  constructive  enterprise,  and  by  so 
much  as  the  industry  of  the  country  has  been  suppressed 
during  the  last  two  years  will  it  become  active  in  the 
next  two  years. 

"Under  the  brave  and  courageous  policy  of  the  Presi- 
dent and  his  cabinet,  confidence  is  being  restored.  Prices 
which  had  been  unduly  depressed  have  risen,  wages  are 
being  restored  to  their  former  standard,  and  new  enter- 
prises are  being  presented,  with  a  fair  prospect  of  being 
worked,  provided  the  silver  cranks  do  not  get  up  another 
panic  like  that  which  they  succeeded  in  making  in 


"That  panic  was  the  deliberate  work  of  the  gold- 
bugs,"  interrupted  Coin.  Atkinspn  took  no  further 
notice  of  his  accusation  than  to  look  at  him  with  undis- 
guised contempt,  as  he  said: 

(  'The  people  who  are  being  cheated  by  the  pamphlets 
and  articles  in  the  papers  which  are  paid  for  by  the  silver 
barons  had  better  put  some  questions  to  them.  The  man 
who  wants  to  go  to  a  financial  school  should  put  to  Sen- 
ator Stewart  the  question,  'Why  do  you  permit  your 
agent  to  loan  money  on  mortgages  payable  only  in  gold?' 
Why  not  ask  Senator  Stewart,  Senator  Jones,  Representa- 
tive Newlands,  and  the  rest  of  them,  why  they  don't  take 
their  own  salaries  as  members  of  Congress  and  senators 
in  silver  dollars?  Look  into  the  condition  of  the  banks  in 


132  SOUND  MONEY. 

Colorado,  Nevada,  etc. ,  of  which  some  of  these  men  are 
directors;  ask  them  why  they  keep  their  reserves  in  gold 
almost  wholly  instead  of  silver?  Ask  them  if  they  are 
not  playing  a  game  in  which  their  motive  is,  'heads  we 
win,  tails  you  lose  ! '  " 

This  hot  thrust  opened  the  eyes  of  some  of  the  Popu- 
lists present.  Could  it  be  possible  that  any  of  their  most 
cherished  idols  were  guilty  of  the  "horrible  crime"  of 
being  bankers?  One  long- whiskered  gentleman,  from 
"way  down  in  Egypt,"  who  had  been  absent-mindedly 
squirting  tobacco  juice  on  the  legs  of  the  man  in  front 
of  him  all  day,  rolled  his  quid  out  of  the  way  of  his 
tongue  and  shouted:  "Don't  believe  it.  'Taint  true!" 

'  'The  report  of  the  comptroller  of  the  currency  will 
confirm  my  statement,"  replied  the  witness;  "you  don't 
need  to  take  my  word  for  it,  my  friend.  Just  come  up 
here  to  the  platform  and  read  it  for  yourself. ' ' 

"Wouldn't  believe  it  then,"  returned  the  silver  crank. 
"Ben  Eckels  is  a  gold  bug  himself,  and  you  can  bet 
he's  got  all  his  facts  and  figures  fixed  to  give  silver  the 
marble  heart." 

"Yes,"  put  in  Coin,  "I  gave  a  pretty  strong  hint  in 
my  article  in  the  Chicago  Record  of  what  I  thought  about 
'figures  produced  at  Washington.'  I  don't  believe  in 
them." 

"I  shouldn't  think  you  would  after  the  way  they've 
used  you  up,"  said  Commissioner  Hobbs,  with  a  grin. 
"You'll  believe  in  them  less  before  the  laboring  people 
get  through  with  you  and  your  theories — yes,  and  the 
farmers,  too,  for  you've  fooled  them  mostly  all." 

"You  are  right,"  said  Mr.  Atkinson.  "The  fact  is, 
the  greater  part  of  the  farmers  and  the  workingnien  of 
this  country — the  depositors  in  the  savings  banks  and 


SO  UNO  MONE  Y.  133 

the  like — have  horse  sense.  They  may  be  rather  slow  to 
move.  We  have  been  a  little  too  sure  that  the  folly  of 
the  silver  craze  would  die  of  its  own  corruption.  But 
the  people  who  do  possess  common  sense  are  find- 
ing out  the  trick,  and  the  silver  craze  is  now  being 
stamped  out.  Then  the  true  question  of  bimetallism  will 
come  up — not  the  false  bimetallism  under  which  it  is  pro1 
posed  to  force  a  man  to  take  silver  when  he  has  been 
promised  gold — but  a  bimetallic  international  system  of 
coinage,  under  which  there  shall  be  a  world's  coin  made 
of  gold  under  one  name,  and  a  world's  coin  made 
of  silver  under  another  name — whoever  names  either  in 
any  contract  or  bill  of  exchange  to  be  called  upon  to  pay 
that  coin,  and  not  to  substitute  one  for  another.  That 
would  be  a  true  system  of  bimetallism,  and  to  secure  that 
the  international  conference  ought  to  be  held. ' ' 

Judging  from  the  applause  which  followed  Mr.  Atkin- 
son's closing  suggestion  for  an  international  agreement  on 
silver  coinage  it  was  clear  that  the  audience  was  by  no 
means  hostile  to  the  proper  use  of  the  white  metal.  Judg- 
ing from  the  favor  extended  to  every  witness  who  had 
exposed  the  idiocy  of  the  United  States  attempting  to 
adopt  free  silver  coinage,  unsupported  by  the  rest  of  the 
world,  the  unanimity  of  this  mixed  audience,  consisting  as 
it  did,  of  all  classes  of  men  irom  day  laborers  to  capitalists, 
from  skilled  mechanics  to  members  of  the  learned  profes- 
sions, and  from  business  men  conducting  their  enterprises 
in  a  large  degree  on  borrowed  capital  to  bankers,  plainly 
indicated  that  the  vast  body  of  the  people  would  strenu- 
ously oppose  the  commission  of  such  national  hari  kari. 

After  the  witness  sat  down  there  was  a  whispered  con- 
sultation between  the  three  commissioners,  and  at  its  con- 
clusion Chairman  Clench  announced  that  both  Commis- 


/34  SOUND  MONEY. 

sioner  Rafferty  and  himself  would  like  a  little  more 
information  on  a  number  of  points  which  were  not  quite 
clear  to  them.  They  proposed,  he  said,  to  ask  questions, 
and  any  gentleman  who  had  the  required  information 
would  confer  a  favor  by  imparting  it.  Thereupon  Com- 
missioner Rafferty  assumed  the  role  of  questioner,  and  it 
was  evident  from  the  drift  of  his  queries  that  his  mind 
was  not  yet  entirely  disabused  of  the  prejudices  created 
by  the  teachings  of  Harvey  Coin. 

"Isn't  it  true,"  he  asked,  "that  the  national  banks  are 
owned  by  Wall  street,  principally  ?  " 

"It  is  a  most  absurd  falsehood,"  replied  Colonel 
Knott.  ' '  The  owners  of  the  national  banks  are  largely 
men  and  women  of  small  means  who  have  put  their  little 
savings  into  bank  stocks  in  order  that  they  may  get  some 
income  on  it.  The  average  holding  of  stock  is  only  $2,337. 
There  are  287,842  stockholders,  and  the  total  amount  of 
national  bank  stock  is  $688,642,876. 

"You  say  'men  and  women,'  "  said  Rafferty.  "What 
have  the  women  got  to  do  with  banking  ? ' ' 

"They  own  $130,681,494  of  the  total  capital  stock,  or 
about  one-fifth,"  was  the  reply.  This  seemed  to  surprise 
Mr.  Rafferty  and  the  audience  also. 

"How  much  stock  is  there  in  the  savings  banks?" 
asked  Commissioner  Hobbs. 

"None, ' '  replied  Colonel  Knott,  '  'in  those  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts type,  and  they  are  recognized  as  the  best  we  have. 
The  money  is  deposited,  carefully  invested  and  the  inter- 
est returned  to  the  depositors.  The  deposits  in  1893 
amounted  to  $1,747,961,280  and  the  number  of  depositors 
was  4,777,687  or  an  average  of  $365.86,  which  shows  that 
the  depositors  are  mostly  poor  people  who  are  trying  to 
save  a  little  for  a  rainy  day." 


. 


SOUND  MONEY.  135 

"How  much  is  deposited  in  the  national  banks?" 
asked  Commissioner  Rafferty. 

"In  1893  the  average  amount  was  $1,647,017,129,  or 
less  than  the  savings  of  the  poor.  There  were  1,929,340 
depositors  in  the  national  banks  who  averaged  $853.67 
.ch,"  replied  the  Colonel,  who  continued: 

In  1873  there  were  1,955  national  banks,  with  a 
total  capital  of  $488,100,000,  on  which  they  earned  5.09 
dividends.  In  1894  there  were  3,741  national  banks,  with 
a  total  capital  of  $665,453,000,  on  which  they  only  earned 
3.3  per  cent  dividends.  In  1890,  while  we  were  at  our 
high  tide  of  prosperity,  we  had  3,294  national  banks, 
which,  on  a  total  capital  of  $634,773,000,  earned  4.27  per 
cent  dividends.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  when  times  are 
hard  banks  earn  smaller  profits,  and  also  that  with  a  large 
increase  in  the  number  of  banks — 1,786,  or  almost  100 
per  cent — the  profits  have  been  materially  reduced.  In 
other  words,  less  interest  is  charged  for  the  use  of  money. 

"I  want  to  say  that  money  in  bank  is  far  more  effect- 
ive— that  is:  far  more  active,  more  actually  'in  circula- 
tion'— than  money  in  a  man's  pocket.  It  is  loaned,  taken 
out  and  used  to  pay  wages  and  comes  back  again  through 
other  channels,  and  is  thus  kept  in  constant  circulation, 
like  water  in  the  well;  whereas,  the  money  that  a  man 
hides  in  his  stocking  or  keeps  in  his  pocket  serves  one 
purpose  and  one  only;  it  gives  assurance  to  that  one  man 
that  he  is  not  dead  broke.  There  it  is  like  water  in  the 
pond.  A  bank  does  not  increase  the  amount  of  money  in 
a  community,  but  it  gathers  from  various  nooks  and  cor- 
ners small  sums  that  in  the  aggregate  are  powerful,  and 
at  once  this  amount  of  money  which  before  was  ineffect- 
ive, almost  useless,  becomes  the  basis  of  various  commer- 
cial enterprises.  The  establishment  of  a  bank,  therefore, 


136  SOUND  MONEY. 

while  it  does  not  increase  the  amount  of  money  in  a  com- 
munity, makes  that  money  circulate  more  rapidly.  In 
other  words,  it  makes  it  more  effective.  Sinking  a  well 
does  not  increase  the  water  in  the  earth,  but  it  makes  it 
more  easily  obtainable. ' ' 

"What  effect,  in  your  opinion,  would  free  coinage 
have  on  all  those  millions  of  savings  you  have  just  men- 
tioned?" inquired  Chairman  Clench. 

"As  Coin  has  admitted  to-day,"  replied  the  keen  Ken- 
tuckian,  "free  coinage  would  bring  us  immediately  to  a 
silver  basis.  That  would  depreciate  to  one-half  the  value 
of  all  the  savings  deposited  in  the  national  banks,  State 
banks,  or  savings  banks.  It  would  lower  one-half  the 
value  of  all  life  insurance,  it  would  decrease  the  purchas- 
ing power  of  pensions  one-half,  and  of  all  fixed  incomes; 
it  would  make  borrowing  by  the  poor  difficult  and  expen- 
sive, if  not  impossible;  it  would  advance  the  rate  of  inter- 
est just  in  proportion  as  the  prices  advance,  it  would 
check  all  of  those  influences  which  under  the  name  of  civ- 
ilization are  making  the  good  things  of  life  abundant  and 
the  common  things  of  life  beautiful. ' ' 

"I  fail  to  see  how  you  figure  that  out,"  said  Commis- 
sioner Rafferty.  *  'If  it  would  advance  the  rate  of  interest, 
and  the  savings  of  the  people  were  out  at  interest,  the  peo- 
ple who  owned  the  savings  would  be  the  gainers  by  the 
change. ' ' 

"Has  not  Coin  told  you  that  his  deliberate  plan  is  to 
cut  down  debts  one-half  011  the  ground  that  it  now  takes 
two  bushels  of  wheat  for  the  one  bushel  that  was  bor- 
rowed?" asked  Col.  Knott. 

"Yes,  I  believe  he  did  say  that,"  replied  the  puzzled 
commissioner. 

"Then,"  said  the  colonel,  "as  the  peoples'  savings 


SOUND  MONEY.  137 

were  loaned  out  in  gold  they  would  be  paid  back  at  50 
cents  on  the  dollar  in  silver. ' ' 

''That's   a   fact!"  exclaimed  Rafferty,  ''and,  by   gra- 
cious, I  have  some  money  in  a  building  and  loan  com 
pany   myself!"     His    alarmed    expression   as   the   truth 
struck  home  to  him  caused  a  ripple  of  laughter  and  he 
did  some  very  heavy  thinking  for  a  few  minutes. 

"lyet  us  see  what  our  debts  are  and  who  are  our  credi- 
tors," continued  the  Colonel,  "and  we  have: 

Railroad  bonds $6,000,000,000 

State,  county  and  municipal  bonds . .  1,100,000,000 

Mortgages  on  farms  and  homes 2,500,000,000 

Loans  by  national  banks 2,000,000,000 

Loans  by  savings  banks 2,000,000,000 

Building  associations  due  depositors .  450,000,000 

Other  bank  loans 1,000,000,000 

National  debt 899,313,000 

"Who  are  the  creditors?  Are  they,  as  Coin  asserts, 
British  and  Eastern  millionaires  ?  Nothing  of  the  kind  ! 

'  'The  money  deposited  in  building  and  loan  associa- 
tions is  invested  in  the  2,000  millions  of  mortgages,  most 
of  it  due  by  people  in  moderate  circumstances  to  others 
similarly  placed.  Hence,  to  reduce  the  450  millions  of 
such  deposits  to  225  millions  would  simply  rob  one  thrifty 
class  of  our  people  to  benefit  another  thrifty  class.  Could 
any  sophistry  argue  this  into  even  a  semblance  of  jus- 
tice? 

'  'The  United  States,  county  and  municipal  bonds  are 
debts  due  by  the  people.  Who  are  the  creditors?  To  a 
large  extent  4,777,687  depositors  in  savings  banks  whose 
average  savings  is  $365.86 !  They  have  loaned  almost  109 
millions  of  dollars  to  the  United  States  on  its  bonds,  to  the 


BEADING  "COIN'S  FINANCIAL  SCHOOL.' 


138  SOUND  MONEY. 

states,  counties  and  municipalities  over  500  millions,  to  the 
railroads  almost  122  millions,  on  mortgages  almost  j8o  mil- 
lions, and  they  have  invested  248  millions  in  other  securities, 
industrial  and  otherwise!  They  have  over  4.4.  millions  in 
bank  stocks,  and  have  loaned  the  banks  88  1-2  millions  more! 

1 '  The  money  loaned  by  these  state  and  national  banks  is 
not  owned  by  Wall  street  or  the  British  octopus.  It  comes 
from  the  $3,500,000,000  of  deposits  made  day  by  day 
by  thousands  upon  thousands  of  depositors  from  all  classes  of 
citizens! 

"Out  of  the  total  mortgage  debt  of  2}^  billions  i^  bil- 
lions is  owed  to  the  humble  people  who  save  a  little  from 
their  wages  for  an  evil  day. 

"Mr.  Coin  and  his  friends  propose  to  bring  on  that 
evil  day  suddenly  by  cutting  what  they  have  saved  in  half 
so  that  the  $270,  the  average  building  association  deposit, 
may  become  $135  and  the  depositor's  next  door  neighbor, 
perhaps,  who  is  the  borrower,  may  be  released  from 
$135  of  his  debt  of  $270! 

"In  the  same  way,  that  the  thrifty  mechanic  or  factory 
hand,  who  has  toiled  hard  for  his  little  savings  of  $365.86, 
the  average  savings  bank  deposit,  may  be  robbed  of 
$182.93  of  his  poor  little  scrimpings  in  order  that  the 
Western  farmer,  who  has  borrowed  the  $365.86  on  mort- 
gage may  repudiate  $182. 93  of  his  just  debt!  Would  that 
be  honest  or  right?  (Applause.) 

"The  favorite  American  investment  of  the  'British 
bloodsucker'  for  many  years  has  been  in  our  railroads. 
The  total  capital  stock  of  these  roads  is  $5,021,576,000. 
Their  funded  debt  is  $5,510,225,000. 

'  'To  change  the  measure  of  a  commodity  does  not  alter 
its  value.  To  cut  a  yard  stick  in  half  does  not  make  36 
inches  of  cloth  less  than  36  inches.  If  the  full  yard  is 


SOUND  MONEY,  139 

worth  a  dollar,  as  measured  in  other  commodites,  when 
you  have  reduced  your  yard  stick  to  18  inches  you  will 
have  to  pay  200  cents  for  a  true  yard  of  cloth. 

'  'Therefore,  supposing  that  the  railroad  stocks  are  now 
worth  their  par  value,  cutting  the  dollar  to  half  its  present 
value  will  simply  double  the  value  of  these  stocks,  as 
measured  in  the  depreciated  dollars.  That  will  make  the 
much  watered  railroad  stocks  worth  $10,043, 152,000.  But 
as  the  debts  of  the  roads  will  all  be  payable  at  50  per  cent 
discount,  because  the  50  cent  dollar  is  to  be  made  legal 
tender  for  all  debts,  public  and  private,  the  funded  debt 
would  be  reduced  to  one-half,  $2,755,115,500." 

As  the  keen  witted  newspaper  man  resumed  his  seat  the 
audience  again  broke  out  in  cheers  and  applause,  in  which 
all  three  of  the  commissioners  joined.  RafTerty's  free 
coinage  ideas  had  received  a  death-blow. 

"Mr.  Coin  has  stated,"  said  Commissioner  Hobbs, 
'  'that  our  foreign  trade  is  insignificant  and  only  amounts 
to  four  per  cent,  of  the  business  of  the  United  States. 
Can  any  gentlemen  tell  me  how  much  it  amounts  to  ?" 

"I  can,"  replied  Editor  Kvans.  "Under  normal  con- 
ditions we  buy  of  foreign  nations  about  $800,000,000 
annually  and  sell  them  as  much  more.  The  amount  var- 
ies. Some  years,  when  we  have  heavy  crops,  we  sell  a 
great  deal  more  than  we  buy,  and  we  have  extra  good 
times  as  a  result.  It  is  safe,  to  say,  however,  that  our 
foreign  business  amounts  to  nearly  $1,600,600,000." 

"Over  a  billion  and  a  half,"  exclaimed  Chairman 
Clench,  "and  yet  he  calls  that  insignificant !" 

"It  is  more  than  the  entire  state  and  municipal  debt  of 
the  United  States  combined;  and,  in  round  numbers,  over 
three-fourths  of  the  state,  municipal  and  national  debts  of 
our  country  combined,"  said  the  editor.  "It  is  consider- 


140  SOUND  MONEY. 

ably  more  than  all  the  coin  and  bullion,  gold  and  silver, 
in  the  United  States,  and  amounts  to  9^  per  cent  of  our 
total  trade." 

"How  do  we  pay  our  half  of  it  ?"  asked  the  big  black- 
smith, who  looked  puzzled.  "If  we  have  to  pay  in  gold 
we  haven't  enough  gold  to  come  anywhere  near  it." 

"We  don't,"  replied  the  editor.  "What  we  sell  is 
offset  against  what  we  buy.  If  we  have  sold  more  than 
we  bought  the  foreigner  pays  us  gold  for  the  difference, 
and  vice  versa.  If  we  had  free  coinage  all  our  gold 
would  leave  us  within  a  week  and  we'd  have  to  pay  our 
balances  in  silver.  Then,  for  every  dollar  we  owed  in 
gold  we'd  have  to  pay  two  silver  dollars — our  debt  of  100 
millions  would  become  200  millions,  and  the  same  would 
be  the  case  wherever  we  have  made  a  contract  to  pay  in 
gold." 

"So  far  from  (a  war  with  England'  proving  'the  most 
popular  war  ever  undertaken'  it  would  prove  the  most 
unpopular  and  a  national  calamity.  From  the  commer- 
cial point  of  view  it  would  mean  the  impoverishment  of 
millions  of  our  people.  England  is  a  better  customer  to 
us  than  all  the  rest  of  the  world  combined.  I/ast  year  we 
sent  her  merchandise  of  all  sorts  to  the  extent  of  $43 1 ,  - 
059,267  and  only  bought  of  her  $107,372,995;  while  to 
the  rest  of  the  world  we  sold  $461,081,305  and  bought 
$547,621,627!  Any  child  can  see  who  paid  the  profits  of 
our  toiling  masses  so  far  as  they  came  from  our  foreign 
commerce.  Can  farmers  and  factory  hands  afford  to 
throw  all  this  away  to  suit  Mr.  Coin? 

"In  1873  our  foreign  commerce  was  $1,164,616,000 
with  a  balance  of  trade  against  us  of  $119,656,000.  In 
1894  our  foreign  commerce  was  $1,547,135,000  with  a 
balance  of  trade  in  our  favor — a  profit  of  $237,145,000." 


SOUND  MONEY.  141 

This  concise  statement  of  facts  so  carefully  avoided  by 
the  free  silver  party  was  applauded  as  it  deserved  to  be, 
and  Commissioner  Clench  then  took  a  hand  in  the  pro- 
ceedings: 

"Looking  over  the  Treasury  Reports,"  he  said,  "I 
can't  see  that  we  need  to  make  more  money — that  is, 
more  currency,  in  this  country.  It  appears  to  me  we 
have  plenty  without  free  coinage. ' ' 

"We  haven't  enough  primary  money,"  replied  Coin. 
"What  we  have  is  principally  paper,  and  the  result  is 
shown  in  my  explosion  diagrams  on  pages  56,  62  and  63 
of  my  book. ' '  He  had  hardly  concluded  when  he  found 
himself  being  mauled  once  more  by  Col.  Forrest,  who 
said: 

"Our  total  money  in  1873  consisted  of  $25,000,000 
gold  reserve  and  $749,445,611  of  paper,  worth  in  gold, 
July  ist,  1873,  $647,521,000. 

' '  We  have  to-day  more  than  this  amount  in  gold  coin 
and  bullion,  viz.,  $693,681,100! 

"We  have  $513,174,338  in  silver  coin  and  bullion, 
every  dollar  of  it  maintained  at  par  with  gold,  or  a  total 
of  $1,206,855,4.38  in  gold  and  silver,  $4.32,4.09,827  in  coin 
over  and  above  the  total  money  of  this  country  in  1873. 

"In  brief:  In  1873  we  had  $25,000,000  of  ^ primary 
money  ^  in  1895  we  have  $693,681,100  of  ' { primary'  or  ^ re- 
demption' money — gold. 

"In  1873  we  had  a  paper  currency  of  $74.9,4.4.5,611, 
supported  by  $25,000,000  in  gold  and  the  confidence  of  our 
own  people — at  a  discount  of  13^  per  cent. 

"In  1895  we  have  a  paper  currency  of  $706,120,000  sup- 
ported by  $693,681,100  in  gold;  also  silver  bullion  and  coin 
with  a  market  value  of  $256,587,000  in  gold  and  the  im- 
plicit confidence  of  the  whole  world — at  par. 


142 


SOUND  MONEY. 


' '  We  have,  therefore,  sufficient  'primary  money'  to  redeem 
every  dollar  of  our  paper  currency  with  too  cents  in  gold, 
and  then  have  14.4., 14.8,000  gold  dollars  left  over. 

'  'So  far  as  the  volume  of  currency  is  concerned  we  had 
in  1873  $18.58  per  capita  in  paper,  worth  $16.05  *n  g°ld. 
We  have  now  $35.44  at  par,  a  more  than  ample  amount  as 
compared  with  the  per  capita  currency  of  the  other  great 
nations.  England  handled  a  total  business,  domestic  and 
foreign,  in  1890,  of  $13,256,346,000,  with  a  total  currency 
°f  $793>239>5°° — scarcely  more  than  our  gold,  of  which 
$603,446,000  was  coin  and  $189,793,500  was  paper. 
France  had  a  total  currency  of  $2,155,859,500,  of  which 
$559,647,500  was  paper  and  $1,596,212,000  was  coin,  to 
carry  on  a  total  trade  of  only  $8, 136,788,000.  We  had  in 
1890,  $2,121,794,000,  with  $1,012, 232,000  of  it  paper,  and 
$1,109,562,000  in  coin,  and  did  a  total  trade  of  $15,558,- 
200,500 — the  largest  in  the  world.  But,  it  will  be  ob- 
served, we  used  286  per  cent  more  currency  than  England 
had  to  carry  on  16  per  cent  more  trade  than  she.  Here  is 
a  table  showing  these  facts  in  convenient  form  and  in 
greater  detail: 

TRADE   AND   MONEY   OP   FOUR   LEADING   NATIONS,     1890. 
— MULHALI,. 


Country. 

Total  Money. 

Paper  Money. 

Coin. 

Foreign  trade. 

England  .... 
Unit'd  States 
France.  •  — 
Germany.  ... 

793,239,500 
2,121,794,000 
2.155,859,500 
1,158,227,000 

189,793,500 
1,012,232,000 
559,647,500 
345,521,500 

603,446,000 
1,109,562,000 
1,596,212,000 
812,705,500 

3,601,210,000 
1,557,280,000 
1,513,481,500 
1,786,005,500 

Country. 

Domestic   trade. 

Total  trade. 

Trade 
per  capita. 

Money  per 
capita  . 

England..'. 
U't'd  States 
France  
Germany  .  . 

9,655,136,000 
14,000,920,500 
6,623,306,500 
7,324,082,500 

13,256,346,000 
15,558,200,500 
8,136,788,000 
9,110,088,000 

347.95 

248.19 
214.82 
193.68 

21.41 
34.06 
57.42 
24,33 

SOUND  MONEY. 

"So  long  as  there  is  sufficient  of  the  medium  of  ex- 
change to  effect  exchanges,"  continued  the  witness,  "a 
redundancy  of  that  medium  can  do  no  possible  good. 
Within  a  few  months  we  have  seen  our  treasury  more 
than  once  brought  face  to  face  with  a  suspension 
of  gold  payments,  and  a  sudden  fall  to  a  silver  basis 
through  the  manipulations  of  unpatriotic  combinations 
of  capital.  By  forcing  the  redemption  of  greenbacks 
and  treasury  notes  in  gold,  they  so  depleted  the  reserve 
of  100  millions  that  to  protect  the  credit  of  the  Nation 
the  administration  was  forced  to  purchase  gold  on  the 
most  favorable  terms  that  could  be  obtained  at  short 
notice. 

"Nor  was  this  made  possible  by  the  scarcity  of  gold  in 
the  country.  We  had  on  July  i,  1894,  $627,293,201  in 
gold  coin  and  bullion,  but  owing  to  a  faulty  financial  sys- 
tem this  vast  amount  could  not  be  made  available,  so  the 
object  of  the  raid  was  secured. 

"We  do  not  need  more  currency.  If  that  would  im- 
prove business  it  would  have  improved  it  in  France  and  in 
this  country;  yet  such  is  not  the  case.  We  had  enormous 
inflation  in  1873,  with  a  paper  money  per  capita  of  $18.58, 
which  brought  on  a  panic  of  serious  dimirisions,  from 
which  it  took  the  country  five  years  to  recover.  We  would 
be  in  a  better  financial  condition  with  a  considerably 
smaller  volume  of  money.  In  1878  we  had  $15.32  in  cir- 
culation and  only  $1.3 1  in  the  treasury.  Then  the  ex- 
pansion of  the  currency  began,  in  obedience  to  the  clamor 
of  the  free  coinage  leaders  and  greenbackers,  who  per- 
suaded the  people  that  more  money  in  circulation  would 
raise  values.  The  currency  was  expanded,  but  values 
continued  to  fall  and  the  theory  of  these  gentlemen  was 
disproved  by  the  results  of  experience. 


144  SOUND  MONEY. 

"By  1882  we  had  $2 8. 20  per  capita,  and  of  that  amount 
circulation  was  only  able  to  take  up  $22.37,  while  $5.83 
slept  in  the  treasury.  In  1885  the  per  capita  had  increased 
to  $32. 37,  but  the  needs  of  the  country  only  demanded 
$23.02,  so  $9.35  lay  idle.  In  1890  we  had  $34.24  per 
capita,  but  $22.82  proved  sufficient  and  $11.42  lay  idle. 
In  1894  we  had  $35.44  per  capita  and  $24.33  proved 
ample  for  the  people's  needs,  while  $i  1. 13  remained  in  the 
treasury.  These  figures  are  all  given  in  the  Treasury 
Report  for  July  i  of  each  year.  It  therefore  appears  that 
about  $25.00  per  capita  is  the  largest  volume  of  currency 
we  require. 

"From  90  to  95  per  cent  of  all  our  commercial  trans- 
actions are  settled  without  the  use  of  any  currency  what- 
ever by  means  of  bank  checks,  drafts,  bills  of  exchange, 
etc. ,  and  by  recent  statistics,  collected  by  the  Comptroller 
of  the  Currency,  it  appears  that  50  per  cent  of  our  retail 
transactions  are  settled  in  the  same  way.  In  1892,  when 
we  were  at  the  high  tide  of  prosperity  almost  61  billions — 
61  thousand  million  dollars — of  business  transactions  were 
settled  by  this  means.  In  1894.,  while  times  were  hard,  4.5 
thousand  million  dollars  worth  of  business  was  thus  trans- 
acted without  the  use  of  a  single  dollar  of  currency. 

"Congress  should  lose  no  time  in  reducing  the  volume 
of  our  paper  currency.  It  is  beyond  question  that  most 
of  the  gold  coinage  of  this  country  is  hoarded,  while  it 
should  be  freely  passing  in  and  out  of  the  treasury  to  assist 
in  carrying  out  the  financial  policy  of  the  country. 

"On  Oct.  2,  1894,  $197,000,000  in  gold  was  held  in 
reserve  by  the  national  banks  alone,  to  say  nothing  of  state 
banks  and  other  fiduciary  institutions  and  the  secret 
hoards  of  the  people.  All  the  gold  required  by  the  treas- 
ury could  be  obtained  from  our  own  people  by  the  issuance 


SOUND  MONEY.  145 

of  long  term,  low  interest  bearing  gold  bonds  in  denomina- 
tions of  $50,  $100  and  $500,  to  be  offered  to  the  people  for 
gold.  By  this  means  the  $346,681,000  of  greenbacks 
might  be  gradually  retired  and  the  country  would  never 
feel  it,  especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that  at  no  time  since 
1878  has  there  been  less  than  400  millions  of  idle  money 
in  the  treasury,  nor  since  1888  less  than  600  millions. 
The  amount  has  varied  from  697  to  759  millions  during 
the  past  five  years.  With  this  350  millions  of  demand 
notes  out  of  the  way  a  serious  menace  to  the  treasury 
gold  reserve  would  be  removed,  and  the  reserve  itself 
could  be  enormeously  strengthened — beyond  any  possi- 
bility of  its  being  effected  by  manipulations  t>r  attempts 
to  'corner  gold. ' 

"That  cube  of  gold  is  troubling  me,"  said  Commis- 
sioner Rafferty. 

"Then  don't  let  it  trouble  you  any  longer,"  replied 
Editor  Evans.  "I  suspected  Coin's  figures  on  general 
principles  and  I  have  been  investigating  the  matter  with 
the  aid  of  his  favorite  authority,  Mulhall.  That  gentle- 
man states  on  page  310  of  his  really  invaluable  Dictionary 
of  Statistics  that  in  1890  the  world's  stock  of  gold  coin  and 
bullion  amounted  to  8, 820  tons,  valued  at  ^1,213, 000,000. 
Since  then  the  world  has  produced  875  tons,  in  round 
numbers.  Deducting  Mulhall' s  percentage  for  arts  and 
manufactures,  45  per  cent.,  that  leaves  481  tons  to  be 
added  to  the  world's  stock  or  a  total  of  9,301  tons  of  gold 
in  1893,  which  gives  us  a  total  stock,  of  $6,249,000,000111 
gold  instead  of  $3,900,000,000  as  Coin  states.  Of  course, 
his  object  in  making  gold  seem  as  scarce  as  possible  is 
apparent  to  everybody — yet  he  wouldn't  mislead  any  one 
for  the  world,  oh,  no! 

"Now,  making  the  calculation  for  his  cube  on  his  own 


146  SOUND  MONEY. 

plan  we  find,  in  round  numbers,  but  on  the  safe  side, 
that  instead  of  9,796  cubic  feet  of  gold  the  world  has  15,697 
cubic  feet.  Of  course  a  little  matter  like  5,901  cubic  feet 
of  gold  at  $398,098  a  cubic  foot  is  a  mere  trifle  to  the 
airy  Mr.  Coin!  You  therefore  see  that  a  cube  25x25x25 
feet  would  still  leave  the  insignificant  sum  of  $28,663,056 
in  golden  cubes  a  foot  each  way  to  find  some  other  place  to 
stop  at. ' ' 

Laughter  and  applause  followed  this  new  exposure, 
and  when  the  house  was  again  quiet  Commissioner  Hobbs 
inquired  whether  Mr.  Evans  had  also  investigated  the 
66-foot  cube  of  silver  which  Coin  alleged  was  all  of  that 
metal  in  the  -world. 

''Oh,  yes,  I've  looked  that  up,  too,"  replied  Mr. 
Evans,  "and  find,  as  usual,  that  Coin,  not  to  be  mealy 
mouthed  about  it,  has  lied  outrageously."  Coin  winced 
and  looked  as  if  he  would  like  to  take  a  walk. 

"Coin  says  on  page  104  of  his  book,"  continued  the 
editor,  pitilessly,  '  'that  the  Director  of  the  Mint  states  in  his 
report  for  1890  that  there  was  in  the  world  $3,820,571,- 
346  in  silver  coin  and  bullion.  Do  I  quote  you  correctly, 
sir?"  he  asked  turning  to  Coin. 

'  'You  do.     That's  what  I  say  in  the  book. ' ' 

"I  have  no  doubt  you  also  quote  the  same  figures  in 
your  'invaluable  hand  book,'"  continued  the  editor. 
"Now,  Mr.  Rafferty,  will  you  please  turn  to  page  180  of 
the  Treasury  Report.  What  is  the  head  line  on  that  table?' ' 

"Monetary  systems  and  approximate  stocks  of  money 
in  the  aggregate  and  per  capita  in  the  principal  countries 
of  the  world,"  read  Rafferty. 

"You  will  note  that  it  only  claims  to  give  the  princi- 
pal countries — not  the  whole  world.  Does  it  say  anything 
about  bullion?" 


SO  UND  MONE  Y.  147 

"Not  a  word,"  replied  Rafferty.  "It  only  gives  the 
coin  and  paper  money." 

"And  bow  much  silver  coin  does  it  say  there  is  in  the 
world?" 

"$4,055,700,000,"  said  Rafferty,  and  Coin  looked 
wicked. 

"You  note,"  said  the  editor,  "that  the  Director  of 
the  Mint  gives  the  coin  alone  at  over  four  billions,  while 
Coin  makes  him  give  both  coin  and  bullion  at  200  millions 
less  than  that  amount.  Now  let's  see  what  Mulhall  says. 
Turn  to  pages  309  and  310  of  his  dictionary.  He  there 
states  that  the  world's  stock  of  silver  coin  and  bullion  in 
1890  was  165,000  tons  valued  at  ^1,213,000,000,  or  in  our 
money  $5,919,440,000.  He  further  states  that  only  53 
per  cent  of  this  vast  stock  of  silver  was  in  coin. 

"Since  that  time  the  world  has  produced  18,826.61 
tons  of  silver  which,  at  the  average  market  price  of  each 
year,  was  worth  $106,291,078.  Deducting  for  arts  and 
manufactures,  as  directed  by  Mulhall,  27  per  cent,  that 
leaves  $287,379,582  to  be  added  to  the  world's  stock  of 
silver,  or  a  total  of  $6,190,444,082  instead  of  $3,820,571,- 
346  as  falsely  stated  by  you,  Mr.  Coin,  in  that  'invaluable 
hand  book'  of  yours. 

"But  let  us  take  it  in  tons,  and  now  for  your  cube. 
Instead  of  there  being  282,085  cubic  feet  of  silver  in  the 
world— if  that  were  the  total  stock  nobody  would  raise  any 
objection  to  free  coinage  at  16  to  i,  I  can  tell  you,  the 
correct  quantity  according  to  Mulhall 's  statement  in  tons 
and  with  the  production  of  1891-3  figured  as  stated,  is 
409,574  cubic  feet,  or  31  per  cent  more. 

"Increase  your  cube  from  66  feet  each  way  to  74  feet 
each  way  and  there  will  be  enough  cubic  feet  left  over  to 
give  you  $167,471,050.  If  you  had  that  much  money  you 


148  SOUND  MONEY. 

wouldn't  need  to  invent  statistics  for  a  living,"  and  with 
that  thrust  the  editor  sat  down  again. 

In  an  instant  the  commotion  in  the  hall  was  something 
terrific.  Yells,  groans,  cat  calls,  hisses  and  howls  of 
rage  burst  forth  as  if  seven  hundred  thousand  devils  had 
snddenly  been  let  loose.  The  noise  made  by  409,574 
cubic  feet  of  cats  suddenly  let  loose  in  tophet  with  their 
claws  clipped  would  have  been  sweet  music  compared 
with  the  row  those  men  kicked  up. 

They  had  been  honestly  deceived  into  believing  in  a 
false  theory  by  a  dishonest  charlatan  who,  as  was  now 
quite  evident,  was  not  troubled  with  any  such  thing  as  a 
conscience. 

When  the  exposure  of  his  alleged  statistics  first  began, 
those  who  had  been  convinced  by  his  specious  arguments 
and  seemingly  irrefutable  figures  made  light  of  what  they 
sincerely  believed  might  be  unwitting  errors.  But  as  the 
testimony  went  on  knocking  away  prop  after  prop  upon 
which  his  whole  argument  was  built  all  men  of  intelli- 
gence perceived  that  the  charitable  theory  of  accident 
must  be  abandoned  in  the  presence  of  the  overwhelming 
evidence  of  deliberate  design. 

In  not  one  single  instance  had  an  error  been  found 
which  told  against  the  theory  of  unlimited  coinage  of  sil- 
ver; on  the  other  hand  there  was  not  a  single  alleged  sta- 
tistical fact  of  strategic  importance  in  the  battle  he  was 
waging  which  had  not  been  found  to  be  either  unfairly 
stated,  recklessly  distorted  or  absolutely  and  willfully 
false. 

Therefore,  the  intelligent  men  whom  he  had  with 
fraud  and  deception  deluded  into  adopting  his  views  and 
fighting  under  his  banner  were  now  mad  with  rage;  and 
had  he  not  been  protected  by  his  intellectual  opponents  on 


SO  UND  MONE  Y.  149 

the  platform  there  is  no  doubt  that  he  would  have  been 
roughly  handled.  As  it  was,  he  shivered  and  trembled 
like  a  whipped  cur  and,  so  far  as  it  was  possible,  hid 
himself  behind  the  men  whom  he  in  his  book  had  vilified 
and  misrepresented  to  an  extent  that  under  a  less  liberal 
form  of  government  than  ours  might  have  been  deemed 
criminally  libellous  and  punished  with  a  term  on  the 
treadmill. 

After  a  vigorous  use  of  the  gavel  for  several  minutes 
Chairman  Clench  at  length  succeeded  in  restoring  some 
semblance  of  order;  and  in  a  brief  speech  he  urged  his 
hearers  to  be  patient.  Instead  of  harm  being  done,  he 
said,  by  the  statements  of  Coin  he  was  satisfied  that  ten 
men  would  be  saved  from  folly  for  every  one  who  had 
thrown  away  his  belief  in  sound  money  to  worship  at  the 
silver  shrine-  Every  man  who  was  brought  back  to  the 
path  of  national  righteousness  by  the  full  publication  of 
the  facts  as  developed  before  Labor's  Commission  on  Coin- 
age would  go  forth  as  the  most  enthusiastic  and  best 
equipped  of  missionaries  among  those  of  his  fellows  who 
still  clung  to  the  delusion  and  bring  them  tenderly  and 
lovingly  back  into  the  honest  money  fold. 

Then  the  disorder  began  again. 

At  this  juncture  the  big  circus  man  jumped  up  on  his 
chair  and  shouted: 

"Let  him  alone,  boys — I  know  he's  fooled  you,  but 
I'll  bet  a  silver  dollar  that  he's  feeling  worse  over  it  this 
minute  than  you  are. ' ' 

A  glance  at  the  cowering  figure  on  the  platform  was 
sufficient  to  point  the  humor  of  the  big  fellow's  remark 
and  a  roar  of  laughter  went  up,  which  cleared  the  atmos- 
phere. In  a  moment,  instead  of  an  infuriated  mob,  the 
audience  became  once  more  a  typically  good  natured 


150  SOUND  MONEY. 

American  crowd.  Taking  advantage  of  the  lull,  Editor 
Evans  resumed  his  argument. 

'  'The  opening  remark  of  the  appendix  to  Mr.  Coin's 
book,"  he  said,  *  'states  that  he  was  never  asked  during 
his  mythical  lectures  to  answer  the  proposition  of  the 
over-production  of  silver,  and  that  under-production  was 
now  conceded  by  every  one  who  had  investigated  it. 

"I  am  one  who  has  investigated  the  subject  thor- 
oughly. 

"Starting  with  the  year  1600  the  world  had  23,000 
tons  of  silver.  By  1700  this  increased  to  45,000  tons,  or 
96  per  cent.  By  1800  the  quantity  was  88,000  tons,  again 
96  per  cent.  In  the  next  48  years  the  quantity  had 
grown  to  1 13,000,  or  19  per  cent.  By  1880  it  was  145,000 
tons,  or  22  per  cent  in  32  years.  By  1890  it  was  165,000, 
and  by  1893  tne  quantity  was  178,745  tons,  or  an  increase 
of  215  per  cent  in  100  years. 

'  'This  increase  was  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  increase 
of  the  world's  population,  for  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  silver  produced  does  not  disappear,  but  remains  and 
accumulates,  only  27  per  cent  being  used  in  arts.  Hence, 
the  time  comes  when  the  demand  fails  to  keep  up  with 
the  supply.  That  time  has  arrived,  as  the  figures  for  the 
last  three  years  will  show.  The  world's  total  production 
was  18,828.61  tons.  Of  this  13,730.77  tons  was  coined 
and  manufactures  took  5,083.61  tons.  This  apparently 
accounts  for  18,814.38  tons,  leaving  a  balance  of  14.03 
tons.  But  in  the  meantime  there  had  been  purchased  by 
our  government  7,028.11  tons,  of  which  only  1,241.72 
tons  had  been  coined  up  to  Nov.  i,  1894,  and  there  was 
left  on  hand  5,783.73  tons  of  silver,  simply  because  this 
Nation  could  not  assimilate  such  an  enormous  amount  of 
silver  coin.  We  had  become  saturated  with  coin.  Mean- 


SOUND  MONEY.  151 

while,  under  the  enormous  increase  in  production  and  the 
uncertainty  of  the  demand  from  the  Orient,  in  particular, 
the  price  fluctuated  from  $1.36  per  ounce  in  1859,  with  a 
constantly  downward  tendency.  It  never  again  reached 
$1.36.  It  remained  at  $1.33  until  1865,  and  $1.32  until 
1872.  By  this  time  the  great  silver  strikes  were  in  full 
blast,  and  better  methods  of  extracting  the  metal  from  its 
ores  were  being  used.  In  1873  the  price  was  $1.29,  in 
'74  $1.27,  in  '75  $1.24,  when  the  production  in  this  coun- 
try alone  had  risen  from  4,500,000  ounces  in  1862  to  35,- 
750,000  in  21  years,  when  it  was  49  per  cent  of  the  total 
production.  In  1877  the  price  had  dropped  to  $1.20,  and 
even  the  passage  of  the  Bland  act  in  the  following  year 
failed  to  prevent  a  further  fall  to  $1.15.  It  then  came 
down  gradually  to  $1.06  in  1885,  93  cents  in  1889  and 
received  a  boost  in  1890  by  the  passage  of  the  Sherman 
act,  when  it  rose  to  $1.04.  But  the  old-time  Oriental  de- 
mand had  departed,  and  even  the  purchase  of  2, 250  tons  a 
year  did  not  save  silver  from  dropping  to  98  cents,  87 
cents,  78  cents  and  63  cents  in  three  years.  We  were 
quickly  glutted  with  silver  dollars,  and  have  nearly  6,000 
tons  of  bullion  lying  idle  in  the  treasury  vaults.  India, 
which  coined  4,013  tons  in  1891-3  is  also  glutted  and  has 
closed  her  mints. 

'  'China  needs  about  200  millions  of  dollars  as  a  token  of 
regard  to  Japan.  This  government  has  the  best  part  of 
6,000  tons  of  useless  metal,  and  we  had  better  get  rid  of  it 
as  a  job  lot;  for  with  our  own  demand,  and  India's,  cut  off, 
and  our  silver  miners  so  insane  that  they  will  mine  metal 
which  costs  $2.00  an  ounce,  or  'even  more,'  to  quote 
Mr.  Coin,  for  63  cents,  I  fail  to  see  what  is  going  to  be 
done  with  the  almost  7,000  tons  a  year  the  world  is 
producing. 


152  SOUND  MONEY. 

*  'To  say  that  the  coinage  demand  would  put  the  metal 
back  to  its  old  value,  if  we  should  open  our  mints  to  it,  is 
an  absurdity  on  its  face  in  the  light  of  the.se  facts.  I 
very  much  doubt  if  concerted  action  on  the  part  of  the 
whole  world  would  have  any  better  effect;  for  it  is  notori- 
ous that  our  own  mines,  if  worked  to  their  full  capacity, 
could  treble  the  present  output  of  the  world  inside  of  two 
years.  And  they  would,  too,  if  the  nations  would  all  coin 
their  bullion  into  dollars  or  exchange  it  for  gold  at  a  16:  i 
ratio. ' ' 

As  the  witness  concluded  the  circus  man  arose  and 
said: 

"My  name  is  Reuben  Haye,  and  the  boys  all  call  me 
'  Hey  Rube'  because  I  travel  with  the  red  wagons. "  "  Plat- 
form," shouted  the  crowd  and  the  big  fellow  obeyed  the 
command. 

"You  may  think  it's  queer  for  a  plain  man  like  me  to 
take  an  interest  in  this  thing  but  I've  been  studying  it 
hard,"  and  with  that  he  pulled  a  copy  of  Coin's  book  out 
of  his  pocket.  The  book  was  well  thumbed  and  stuffed 
with  scraps  of  paper  scribbled  over  with  manuscript. 

"Now,  he  says  here,"  Hey  Rube  continued,  "on page 
119,  that  this  country  owes  in  various  kinds  of  ways  40 
billions  of  dollars,  and  that  the  whole  of  the  property  in  the 
United  States  is  only  24  billions  and  a  half,  so  if  what  he 
says  is  true  we're  a  ruined  community.  We're  so  bank- 
rupt that  there  isn't  a  bit  of  good  ever  trying  to  get  sol- 
vent again.  It  means  a  debt  of  $597  for  every  man, 
woman  and  child  in  the  United  States.  Nobody  would 
take  any  stock  in  that  except  a  man  gone  clean  luny  on 
Coin  and  the  silver  craze. 

'  'But  the  census,  which  he  pretends  to  quote,  says  the 
true  value  of  all  our  property  is  over  65  billions.  Do  yon 


SOUND  MONEY.  153 

see  what  a  reckless  liar  he  is?"  Again  the  audience 
howled  and  applauded. 

"L,ook  at  the  way  he  'estimates'  it.  He  puts  in 
'overdue  accounts'  to  the  amount  of  five  billions — five 
thousand  millions,  or  $74.62  per  capita.  Most  people 
would  have  a  fit  if  anybody  told  them  they  could  get  a 
chance  to  run  in  debt  that  much.  It's  rubbish,  that's 
what  it  is! 

"Then  look  at  what  he  allows  the  pawnbrokers— one 
thousand  million  dollars.  He  wants  us  to  believe  that 
each  of  us,  man,  woman  and  child,  owes  $14.92  to  our 
uncle.  I'd  like  to  know  where  we  got  all  the  property 
that  we've  put  up  the  spout.  It  must  have  cost,  retail, 
when  new  at  the  very  least  five  thousand  millions — five 
billion  dollars,  or  our  uncles  couldn't  have  loaned  any  bil- 
lion on  it.  They're  not  doing  business  on  any  better  basis 
than  20  per  cent  of  the  retail  price,  and  not  once  in  a 
dozen  times  will  they  give  you  that  much. 

"I  know.  I've  had  to  soak  my  watch  more  than  once, 
for  all  I've  got  $40,000  worth  of  property.  Those  pledges, 
then,  cost  the  people  $74.62  apiece,  all  around.  I'll  bet 
Coin  a  new  hat  that  I  can  show  him  half  a  million  people 
in  this  town  who  never  owned  $74  worth  of  property  at 
one  time  in  their  lives;  and  half  a  million  more  who  were 
never  inside  a  pawnbroker's  shop. 

"But  the  thing  that  puzzles  me  is,  where  did  these 
pawnbrokers  get  that  billion  dollars  to  loan  out?  There 
are  34  principal  cities  in  this  country.  There  are  60 
pawnbrokers  in  Chicago,  75  in  New  York,  60  in  Boston, 
20  in  St.  Louis,  20  in  Frisco,  20  in  New  Orleans,  we'll 
say,  and  to  lump  it  and  do  the  square  thing  by  Coin  we'll 
say  there's  i  ,000  of  them  in  the  whole  country.  Of  course 
you  couldn't  find  that  many  if  he'd  give  you  all  the  sil- 


154  SO  UND  MONE  V. 

ver  he  forgot   accidentally  on  purpose  to  put  into  that 
light-weight  cube  of  his. 

"But,  anyway,  say  there  are  1,000  pawnbrokers.  I 
want  to  know  where  they  got  the  billion  dollars  to  loan 
out?  That  would  mean  a  million  dollars  apiece.  Think 
of  it!  Your  uncle  has  a  million  dollars  loaned  out  and 
of  course  more,  besides,  to  jrun  the  business  from  day 
to  day. 

-"I  did  think  Coin  was  some  as  an  inventor  of  statistics, 
but  as  an  estimater  he  comes  under  the  wire  before  the 
others  get  into  the  stretch.  He  outclasses  Baron  Munch  - 
ausen  and  Joe  Mulhatton.  To  quote  my  friend,  Keogh, 
the  horse  reporter: 

"  "Thefiblets 
Of  his  giblets 

Knock  old  Ananias  out. ' 

'  'Well,  he  goes  on  and  loads  us  up  this  way. 

"Private  debts,  $14.92  apiece.  Maritime  debts,  one 
billion.  Say,  where  is  our  American  merchant  marine, 
anyway?  I  didn't  know  we  had  any  till  I  read  this. 
Surely  he  can't  mean  that  our  inland  lake  trade,  coasting 
trade  and  fishing  industry  ever  got  people  with  a  billion 
soft  enough  to  loan  it  on  a  plant  not  worth  200  million, 
all  told? 

'  'Then,  just  by  way  of  making  good  his  rash  assertion  of 
a  40  billion  debt,  or  else  because  he  loves  to  invent  things, 
he  claps  on  four  billions  more  for  overdrafts,  judgments, 
taxes  and  any  other-  little  items  that  he  thought  might  get 
away  from  him  while  he  wasn't  looking,  and  so  tacks  on 
another  $59. 70  a  head.  Then  he  sticks  on$i  i .  91  a  head  for 
'  increase, '  estimating  the  ratio  at  the  same  rate  as  during 
the  10  years  from  i88i-'9O,  when  everything  was  booming 


SOUND  MONEY.  1,5 

to  beat  the  band.  He  knows  well  enough  that  the  strings 
have  been  drawn  tighter  and  tighter  the  last  three  years, 
until  a  man  would  hardly  give  his  own  grandma  credit  for 
a  bar  of  soap. 

"This  is  the  rot  that  made  me  tired  to  start  with.  I 
was  a  free  silverite  myself  till  I  read  Coin  and  he  set  me 
to  thinking.  The  more  I  read  and  thought  the  more  fool- 
ishness I  found  out,  till  I  made  up  my  mind  that  if  any 
cause  needed  bolstering  up  with  lies  and  fraud  it  must  be 
a  mighty  bad  cause.  I  didn't  have  to  read  any  gold  bug 
literature  to  get  my  bearings.  I  just  found  out  where  I 
was  at  for  myself,  and  I've  made  up  my  mind  to  vote 
against  free  silver  if  I  had  to  vote  for  George  Francis 
Train  to  do  it!"  and  with  that  the  good  man  lurched 
heavily  over  to  the  table  and  shook  hands  with  the  com- 
missioners and  witnesses,  introducing  himself  as  "Hey 
Rube  from  Canvastown. ' ' 

The  commission  then  adjourned. 


156  SOUND  MONEY. 


CHAPTER    V. 

HIGH  WAGKS  AND  I<OW  PRICES. 

Old  Sol  himself  smiled  when  he  emerged  from  his 
morning  bath  in  L,ake  Michigan,  as  if  he  had  been  per- 
mitted a  glimpse  into  the  immediate  future  and  could 
already  see  the  triumph  of  Truth,  scheduled  by  Fate  for 
the  fifth  session  of  Labor's  Commission  on  Coinage. 

At  the  close  of  the  second  session  in  Plasterer's  Hall, 
the  crowd  on  the  stairway  and  in  the  street  had  exceeded 
in  size  the  audience  inside.  In  order  that  all  who  desired 
to  witness  the  greatest  battle  of  the  series,  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  laboring  man,  mechanic,  manufacturer,  farmer, 
trader,  in  fact  every  class  of  the  community — the  war  of 
wages  and  of  prices,  the  Honest  Money  I/eague  had  placed 
the  Auditorium  at  the  disposal  of  Labor's  representatives 
for  the  following  day. 

Hours  before  the  time  announced  for  beginning  the 
proceedings  the  doors  of  the  great  theater  were  besieged 
by  a  crowd  which  completely  blocked  Congress  street  and 
overflowed  onto  Wabash  and  Michigan  avenues.  By  9 
o'clock  the  crush  was  almost  equal  to  the  one  which  oc- 
curred in  the  same  vicinity  during  Chicago  Day  at  the 
World's  Fair.  At  9:30  o'clock,  when  Manager  Mil  ward 
Adams,  of  the  Auditorium,  attempted  to  reach  his  office, 
even  his  splendid  physique  availed  him  nothing  against 
the  good  natured  turbulence  of  the  mob,  and  he  found 
himself  tossed  about  hither  and  yon  as  if  he  had  been  a 
feather.  He  was  obliged  to  give  up  the  attempt,  and 
finally  gained  an  entrance  through  the  stage  door. 


SOUND  MONEY.  157 

When  at  length  the  doors  were  thrown  open  it  seemed 
as  if  the  vast  building's  capacity  for  swallowing  up  a 
crowd  had  become  suddenly  limited,  and  after  every  inch 
of  standing  room,  even,  was  occupied,  enough  men  to  fill 
Battery  D  still  found  themselves  outside.  Within,  mill- 
ionaires and  mechanics,  lawyers  and  laborers,  ministers 
and  merchants,  physicians  and  politicians,  bankers  and 
bookmakers  found  themselves  rubbing  elbows  with  each 
other  on  the  ground  of  common  interest. 

Great  public  questions  make  strange  companionships. 
The  mere  announcement  that  wages  and  the  fall  in  prices 
would  be  discussed;  in  other  words,  that1  the  silver  ques- 
tion in  relation  to  the  private  pocketbook,  would  be  the 
subject,  had  been  sufficient  to  draw  together  this  hetero- 
geneous multitude. 

The  platform  was  crowded  with  notabilities — many  of 
them  men  whose  names  were  known  beyond  the  confines 
of  their  state  and  country.  Mayor  George  B.  Swift,  Col. 
George  R.  Davis,  Wm.  T.  Baker,  president  of  the  Board 
of  Trade;  Secretary  Stone,  of  the  same  body;  Senators 
Stewart,  Jones,  Allison,  Cameron,  Morgan  and  Vest, 
Congressmen  Joe  Sibley  and  "Silver"  Bland,  Ben  F. 
Richolson,  Gov.  Altgeld,  Joseph  Medill,  Wm.  Penii 
Nixon,  Secretary  Hinrichson,  H.  H.  Kohlsaat,  John  R. 
Wilson,  Editor  "Clint"  Evans,  James  W.  Nye,  Judges 
Ewing,  Tuley,  Tuthill,  Goggin  and  Hannecy,  R.  W. 
Knott  of  Louisville,  Clarence  Darrow,  big  ex-Sheriff 
Matson,  Dr.  Holmes,  ex-Judge  McConnell,  ex-Mayor 
Hopkins,  Robert  Emmet  Burke,  "Doc"  Jamieson,  Slason 
Thompson  and  others,  exchanged  greetings  and  circulated 
among  each  other  in  a  manner  to  give  no  hint  that  a 
great  political  battle  was  to  be  practically  decided  by  the 
outcome  of  that  day's  debate, 


158  SOUND  MONEY. 

Beside  the  tall  form  of  the  great  financier,  Senator 
Sherman,  stood  that  modern  ''little  giant"  William  H. 
-Mason,  "the  long  and  the  short  of  it"  on  this  occasion. 
In  a  group  near  the  center  of  the  stage  stood  Senator  John 
M.  Palmer,  President  Robbins,  of  the  Honest  Money 
League,  "Jake"  Richards,  Sigmund  Zeisler,  Adlai  T. 
Ewing,  Lyman  J.  Gage,  Professors  J.  Lawrence  Laughlin 
and  D.  McLean  Hardy  of  the  University  of  Chicago, 
John  R.  Walsh,  B.  G.  Keith,  N.  W.  Harris,  and  Dr. 
Thomas,  in  earnest  conversation.  Ex-Congressman 
Harter  of  Ohio  and  Senator  David  B.  Hill  of  New  York 
formed  a  little  group,  with  Edward  Atkinson,  the  noted 
political  economist  of  Boston. 

And  in  the  front  row,  conversing  with  the  silver  sena- 
tors, was  Mr.  Harvey  Coin,  with  a  smile  as  if  of  confident 
anticipation  on  his  lips,  but  with  a  feeling  of  depression 
deep  in  his  heart.  This  day  he  would  fight  in  his  last 
ditch  and  he  secretly  dreaded  the  outcome. 

As  the  hour  of  10  o'clock  struck,  the  tapping  of  the 
gavel  commanded  silence  and  those  on  the  platform  im- 
mediately took  their  seats.  Before  them  stretched  a  sea 
of  faces  from  inside  the  orchestra  railing  away  up  to  the 
very  roof.  As  it  was  noticed  that  those  on  the  platform 
were  seating  themselves  the  hubbub  of  conversation  sud- 
denly ceased  and  an  expectant  hush  pervaded  the  most 
magnificent  audience,  in  point  of  both  members  and  intel- 
ligence, that  ever  thronged  the  Auditorium. 

'  'The  meeting  will  please  come  to  order, ' '  said  Chair- 
man Clench,  and  the  audience  shouted,  ''louder."  Raising 
his  voice  the  big  blacksmith  continued:  "This  is  the  most 
magnificent  meeting  I  ever  saw  and  I  am  proud  to  be  its 
presiding  officer.  We  are  here  to-day  to  discuss  the  sub- 
ject of  wages  and  the  fall  in  prices,  and  all  citizens  are 


SOUND  MONEY.  159 

invited  to  ask  questions  or  make  statements  or  arguments 
touching  the  questions  under  discussion.  We  seek  the 
truth  and  only  by  hearing  both  sides  shall  we  succeed  in 
finding  it. ' ' 

At  this  moment,  Coin,  who  had  previously  left  the 
stage,  reappeared  at  the  ( 'prompt"  entrance,  followed  by 
two  men  carrying  a  large  blackboard  which  they  secured 
in  the  center  of  the  stage,  close  to  the  foot  lights,  with 
theater  braces,  under  the  direction  of  Master  Carpenter 
Barstow.  Upon  the  blackboard  had  been  chalked  what 
appeared  to  be  a  table  of  the  prices  of  wheat,  cotton  and 
silver  from  1872  to  1893,  an^  it  was  announced  in  large 
letters  that  these  were  the  average  export  prices  for  the 
years  given. 

"This,"  said  Coin,  "gives  you  the  decline  in  wheat, 
silver  and  cotton  since  1873.  I  say  'decline,'  but  it  would 
be  equally  true  for  me  to  say  that  these  figures  register 
the  rise  in  the  purchasing  power  of  gold.  Property  is 
standing  still  and  gold  is  going  up. 

"It  is  a  common  thing  now  to  hear  the  expression 
that  the  silver  in  a  silver  dollar  is  only  worth  60  cents,  or 
fifty  cents,  as  the  case  may  be  at  the  time.  When  we 
had  a  double  standard  and  silver  was  the  unit,  such  a 
thing  as  its  being  worth  more  or  less  than  a  dollar  was  as 
impossible  as  it  would  be  now  for  the  gold  in  a  gold  dollar 
to  be  worth  more  or  less  than  a  dollar.  Had  gold  been 
destroyed  as  primary  money  by  the  same  nations  and  sil- 
ver made  the  standard,  we  could  have  had  gold  in  the 
form  of  token  money  to-day  worth,  say,  fifty  cents  on 
the  dollar  as  measured  in  silver. ' ' 

"Do  you  know  anything  about  the  year  1864?"  in- 
quired Jacob  W.  Richards,  formerly  South  Town  assessor 
for  many  years. 


160  SOUND  MONEY. 

"I  know  everything,"  replied  Coin. 

"That  was  while  silver  was  still  primary  money,  as 
you  claim?"  pursued  Mr.  Richards. 

"It  was." 

"Greenbacks  were  at  a  discount  and  much  below 
silver,  were  they  not?" 

"They  were." 

"Or  silver  was  at  a  premium  compared  with  green- 
backs?" 

"It  doesn't  matter  which  way  you  put  it.  Silver  was 
worth  at  least  its  unit  value,  100  cents  in  the  dollar,  and 
greenbacks  were  away  below  par. ' ' 

"And  how  much  was  gold  worth?" 

"Gold  was  at  a  premium  too." 

"Wasn't  it  at  a  lower  premium  than  silver?" 

"I  believe  it  was." 

"Silver  was  worth,  in  gold,  $1.03  for  371^  grains, 
whether  coined  or  uncoined.  Therefore,  as  you  claim 
we  had  a  double  standard,  why  wasn't  the  silver  in  a 
silver  dollar,  as  decreed  by  Congress,  exactly  equal  to  the 
gold  in  a  gold  dollar?  How  could  the  unit  be  worth 
more  than  unity?"  And  Coin  said  he  would  think  about 
that  curious  phenomenon. 

"This  table,"  he  went  on  rapidly,  although  his  voice 
was  drowned  by  the  titter  of  laughter  which  ran  through 
the  audience,  "demonstrates  beyond  a  doubt  that  silver 
and  other  staples  have  fallen  in  price  or,  rather,  that  gold 
has  appreciated,  and  therefore  that  silver  is  the  best  stand- 
ard of  value." 

"Why  so?"  asked  H.  H.  Kohlsaat,  who,  in  his  newly 
acquired  paper,  the  Times-Herald,  was  making  a  magnifi- 
cent fight  for  sound  money  and  was  keen  to  pick  out  the 
fallacies  of  Coin's  reasoning. 


SO  UND  MONE  Y.  161 

"Because  silver  has  remained  stationary,  while  gold 
has  gone  steadily  up. ' ' 

"Didn't  the  price  of  silver  fluctuate  before  1873," 
continued  Mr.  Kohlsaat,  "the  same  as  any  other  com- 
modity?" 

"No.     It  was  gold  which  fluctuated,"  insisted  Coin. 

"Oh,  I  see,"  said  Mr.  Kohlsaat  thoughtfully.  "Sup- 
posing that  the  prices  of  silver  and  2 1  other  commodities 
in  the  list  change  in  a  single  day,  some  advancing  and 
others  decreasing,  it  is  really  not  the  prices  of  commodities 
which  have  changed,  but  the  price  of  gold  as  measured 
in  the  commodities.  What  a  busy  time  gold  must  have 
of  it!" 

This  palpable  absurdity  was  received  with  laughter, 
and  Coin,  evidently  nettled,  said: 

"You  won't  argue  the  way  I  want  you  to,  Mr.  Kohl- 
saat." 

"Not  while  I  retain  my  reason,"  was  the  sententious 
reply.  "All  values  are  merely  relative.  They  have  been, 
they  are  and  they  will  continue  to  be  measured  in  gold. ' ' 

'  'This  is  the  proper  way  to  look  at  the  matter, ' '  per- 
sisted Coin,  "as  I  say  on  page  in  of  my  book: 

"If  we  were  to  double  the  weight  of  the  gold  dollar 
by  putting  463%  grains  in  it,  we  would  thus  reduce  the 
value  of  all  the  property  in  the  world,  as  expressed  in  dol- 
lars except  debts,  as  they  call  for  so  many  dollars.  If  we 
were  to  cut  the  gold  dollar  in  two  and  make  it  i  ly6^  grains 
we  would  thereby  double  the  value  of  all  the  property  in 
the  United  States  except  debts.  That's  the  way  we  rea- 
son it." 

"I  have  heard  of  persons  at  Elgin  and  Kankakee  who 
reason  in  much  the  same  way,"  replied  Mr.  Kohlsaat. 
"By  the  same  process  all  a  farmer  has  to  do  to  get  rich  is 


162  SOUND  MONEY. 

to  cut  each  acre  of  his  land  in  half  and  call  each  half  an 
acre.  Instead  of  200  acres  he  has  400  and,  of  course, 
raises  double  the  crop  he  grew  before. 

"Then  he  calls  in  his  neighbor  and  sells  him  200  acres 
because  his  4<x>-acre  farm  is  too  big  for  him  to  work.  By 
and  by  he  gets  greedy  and  subdivides  again,  goes  through 
the  same  motions  and  again  sells  200  acres,  always,  on 
your  'reasoning, '  getting  as  big  a  crop  as  he  did  with  the 
original  200  acres.  A  third  time  he  takes  what  is  left, 
by  now  reduced  to  50  acres,  measured  on  the  silly  old 
plan  in  use  before  you  showed  him  how  to  get  rich  so 
easily,  and  cuts  it  again  in  half,  making  another  400 
acres,  and  sells  half  of  it.  He  would  then  be  able  to  re- 
tire from  business  and  let  his  boys  turn  the  25  acres  into 
400,  then  12  ^  acres  into  400,  then  the  6^  acres  into  400, 
each  time  selling  200  acres,  until  they  got  it  down  to  a 
fraction  of  an  acre.  Of  course  there  is  no  doubt  in  your 
mind  that  people  would  pay  the  original  price  per  acre, 
no  matter  how  many  times  the  subdivision  might  be  made. 
How  strange  it  is  that  nobody  ever  thought  of  this  simple 
plan  for  growing  rich  until  you  were  kind  enough  to  point 
it  out!" 

This  caused  another  laugh  at  Coin's  expense,  and  he 
was  about  to  leave  the  stage  in  a  huff  when  Chairman 
Clench  reminded  him  that  he  had  merely  exhibited 
his  table  of  figures  without  drawing  any  conclusions 
from  it. 

' 'Those  figures,  sir,"  said  Coin  with  chilling  dignity, 
'  'present  the  best  possible  proof  of  the  great  truth  which 
I  have  discovered  and  dwelt  on  in  my  book — the  analogy 
between  silver  and  all  other  commodities.  As  silver 
rises,  so  commodities  rise.  As  silver  falls  so  fall  com- 
modities. This  is  a  law  of  nature  which  is  not  easily  ex- 


SOUND  MONEY.  163 

plained,  but  by  means  of  price  tables  like  this,  covering 
periods  of  years,  I  have  been  able  to  demonstrate  the  in- 
fallibility of  my  theory.  Look  at  the  blackboard,  gentle- 
men. Note  the  prices  in  1872 — wheat  a  dollar  forty, 
cotton,  eighteen  cents,  and  silver  a  dollar  thirty-two. 
Then  look  at  1893,  after  twenty  years  of  demonetization, 
and  see  how  the  prices  have  exactly  kept  step  with  silver 
in  its  downward  course — wheat  sixty-three  cents,  cotton 
seven  cents,  silver  seventy-two  cents.  -Take  the  next  two 
years  at  the  top  and  bottom  of  the  list,  1873 — wheat  a 
dollar  twenty-five,  cotton  eighteen  and  two-tenth  cents, 
silver  a  dollar  twenty-nine.  1892 — wheat  eighty  cents, 
cotton  eight  and  seven-tenth  cents,  silver  eighty-six  cents. 
This  is  one  of  the  strongest  arguments  for  silver  as  a 
money  metal — its  inspired  sympathy  for  other  commodities. 
Look  at  it  again  in  1884 — wheat  a  dollar  seven,  cotton 
ten  and  one-half,  silver  only  a  dollar  and  eleven  cents. 
Notice  what  followed  in  the  next  year — wheat  eighty-six 
cents,  cotton  ten  and  six- tenths,  silver  a  dollar  six.  The 
theory  is  perfect. ' ' 

"I  have  my  doubts  about  those  figures,"  said  Coin's 
most  unmerciful  critic,  Editor  Clinton  Evans,  of  the 
Economist. 

"You  don't  need  to,"  retorted  Coin.  "I  took  them 
from  the  report  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture. ' ' 

''While  the  department  wasn't  looking?"  asked 
the  editor  drily.  "I  notice  that  you  have  eighty- 
five  cents  as  the  average  export  price  of  wheat  in 
1892,  and  I  happen  to  remember  that  wheat  only 
touched  eighty-five  cents  in  Chicago  once  in  all  that 
year. ' ' 

"I  might  have  made  an  error  in  copying,  but  I  don't 
think  so,"  said  Coin. 


164  SO  UND  MONE  Y. 

"We'll  soon  find  out,"  said  the  editor,  "for  Secretary 
Stone,  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  is  with  us  and  is  prepared 
to  give  the  prices  in  the  '70' sand  '8o's." 

Mr.  Stone  arose  from  his  place  on  the  platform  be- 
tween President  Baker  and  John  R.  Wilson,  of  the  Even- 
ing Journal,  with  a  small  octavo  cloth-covered  book  in 
his  hand. 

"I  object  to  Mr.  Stone  using  any  private  records  of  the 
Board  of  Trade,"  protested  Coin.  "I  have  no  confidence 
in  them." 

"Will  the  records  of  the  government  of  the  United 
States  be  satisfactory?' '  inquired  Secretary  Stone  in  that 
bland  and  gentle  manner  which  has  made  him  one  of  the 
most  popular  men  connected  with  the  greatest  grain  mart 
in  the  world. 

"That  will  depend  on  circumstances,"  suggested 
Col.  Knott.  "Our  friend  didn't  seem  to  relish  the 
government  records  brought  to  his  notice  yesterday 
— not  to  any  alarming  degree."  There  was  another 
laugh  at  this  and  when  it  was  over  Chairman  Clench 
said: 

4  'After  consulting  with  my  fellow  commissioners  I  find 
that  we  are  unanimously  agreed  on  the  full  credit  which 
should  be  accorded  the  records  of  the  government.  Mr. 
Stone  will  oblige  us  by  stating  whether  the  figures  given 
by  Mr.  Coin  are  correct  or  not." 

"Well,"  replied  Mr.  Stone,  who  is  blessed  with  a  keen 
sense  of  humor,  '  'Mr.  Coin  has  certainly  made  some  of  the 
quotations  correctly. ' ' 

"Which  are  the  correct  ones?"  asked  Commissioner 
Hobbs. 

"Wait  a  minute,"  put  in  Chairman  Clench.  "What 
book  are  you  quoting  from,  Mr.  Stone?" 


SOUND  MONEY.  165 

"The  'Statistical  Abstract'  issued  by  the  Treasury  De- 
partment for  1894,"  replied  the  witness.  Then  he  con- 
tinued, ''Mr.  Coin  gives  correct  quotations  of  the  export 
prices  of  wheat  in  1887  and — :."  Running  his  eye  up  and 
down  the  blackboard  and  then  up  and  down  the  columns 
of  figures  in  the  book  he  stopped.  Finally  he  ejaculated, 
"Bless  my  soul!  That's  all!" 

This  discovery  created  a  great  sensation.  Men  could 
not  believe  that  even  Coin,  with  all  his  effrontery,  would 
dare  to  attempt  such  a  rank  imposture  as  this. 

' 'Surely  you  must  be  mistaken,  George,"  said  Presi- 
dent Baker.  "You've  got  hold  of  the  wrong  table." 

"Indeed  I  haven't,"  declared  the  secretary.  "This 
is  page  411  and  gives  the  average  New  York,  or  ex- 
port, prices  of  wheat  for  the  years  in  question.  As  to 
cotton,"  he  continued,  "the  gentleman  is  a  good  deal 
closer.  His  quotations  are  correct  for  the  years  1877 
and  1880." 

This  neat  bit  of  sarcasm,  so  deftly  delivered,  provoked 
a  shout  of  laughter  from  those  on  the  stage  which  was 
taken  up  and  reechoed  by  the  audience. 

"Do  you  mean  to  tell  this  commission,  sir,  that  out  of 
44  quotations  only  three  are  correct?"  asked  the  chair- 
man. 

"That  is  the  case,  sir,"  replied  Mr.  Stone, 

"I  shall  not  say  what  I  think  of  this  disclosure,  sir, 
at  this  time,"  said  Clench,  turning  to  Coin  who  looked 
like  a  man  who  has  been  caught  cheating  at  cards,  '  'but 
I  shall  certainly  let  this  audience  understand  the  full  ex- 
tent of  the  deception  you  have  attempted  to  practice. ' ' 
Then  turning  to  Mr.  Stone,  he  said:  "If  you  will  oblige 
the  commission  and  also  the  audience  by  reading  off  the 
correct  figures  I  have  no  doubt  Commissioner  Hobbs  will 


166 


SOUND  MONEY. 


be  pleased  to  write   them   on   the   blackboard  alongside 
those  of  Mr.  Coin. ' ' 

This  suggestion  was  immediately  carried  out  and  when 
the  blackboard,  which  had  been  turned  with  its  back  to 

AVERAGE   EXPORT   PRICES  OF  WHEAT  AND  COTTON  EACH 

YEAR. 

Prices  of  wheat  and  cotton  given  correctly  by  Coin  are  in  bold 
face  figures. 


WHEAT,    BU. 

COTTON,   LB. 

SILVER,   OZ. 

Year. 

Coin's 
price. 

True  price. 

Coin's 
price. 

True  price. 

Coin's 
price. 

True 
price. 

1872 

1.40 

1.25 

18.0 

22.2 

1.32 

1.32 

73 

1.25 

1.24 

18.2 

20.1 

1.29 

1.30 

74 

1.35 

1.15 

15.0 

17.9 

1.27 

1.28 

75 

1.10 

.94 

15.0 

15.5 

.24 

1.25 

76 

1.20 

1.00 

129 

13.0 

.15 

1.16 

77 

1.17     - 

1.04 

11.8 

11.8 

.20 

1.20 

78 

1.30 

1.19 

11.1 

11.2 

1.15 

1.15 

79 

1.07 

1.21 

9.9 

10.8 

.12 

1.12 

1880 

1.25 

1.27 

11.5 

11.5 

.14 

1.14 

81 

1.11 

1.32 

11.4 

12.0 

.13 

1.14 

82 

1.19 

1.28 

11.4 

11.5 

.13 

1.14 

83 

1.13 

1.17 

10.8 

11.9 

.11 

1.11 

84 

1.07 

.97 

10.5 

10.9 

.01 

1.11 

85 

.86 

.96 

10.6 

10.5 

1.06 

1.06 

86 

.87 

.88 

9.9 

9.3 

.99 

-.99 

87 

.89 

.89 

9.5 

10.2 

.97 

.98 

88 

.85 

.97 

9.8 

10. 

.93 

.94 

89 

.90 

.88 

9.9 

10.6 

.93 

.93 

1890 

.83 

.98 

10.1 

11. 

1.04 

1.04 

91 

.85 

1.09 

10.0 

8.6 

.90 

.99 

92 

.80 

.91 

8.7 

7.7 

.86 

.87 

93 

.63 

.74 

7.0 

8.6 

.72 

.78 

the  audience,  was  again  turned  to  view  it  presented  the 
appearance  of  the  table  herewith  given,  the  true  prices 
being  placed  in  deadly  parallel  with  those  which  Coin 
had  attempted  to  foist  upon  the  public. 

Hoots,  yells  and  jeers  arose  from  that  dense  mass  of 
humanity  as  soon  as  men  had  had  time  to  grasp  the  full 


SOUND  MONEY.  167 

meaning  of  the  attempted  fraud;  and  it  was  with  some 
little  difficulty  that  order  was  restored.  Coin  stood  stol- 
idly with  a  cynical  smile  playing  around  his  mouth. 
What  did  he  care?  It  was  all  in  his  day's  work.  It  was 
a  desperate  last  chance.  He  had  taken  it  and  lost — that 
was  all. 

Editor  Evans,  who  had  been  rapidly  figuring  on  slips 
of  paper  at  the  reporter's  table,  now  advanced  to  the  front 
of  the  platform  and  said: 

"I  want  to  call  the  attention  of  the  public  to  the  the- 
ory advanced  by  Coin  and  the  reason  he  quotes  these  fig- 
ures. There  is,  according  to  him,  a  direct  relation  be- 
tween the  price  of  silver  and  the  prices  of  all  other  com- 
modities. In  view  of  this  fact  I  want  you  all  to  notice 
that  from  1872  until  1880  silver  sold  for  over  a  dollar — 
from  $1.32  down  to  $1.12.  It  is  his  object,  therefore,  to 
make  the  prices  of  wheat  and  cotton  appear  larger  than 
they  are,  especially  the  top  figures  of '72,  '73  and '74 
when  silver  was  above  $1.24.  What  is  the  fact?  His 
falsified  figures  increase  his  prices  prior  to  1880  from  an 
average  of  $i .  1 2  ^  a  bushel  for  wheat,  the  government  quo- 
tation, to  $1.23 — a  mighty  long  difference  in  the  aver- 
age price  of  wheat  for  a  whole  year.  From  1886  to  1893, 
when  silver  dropped  from  99  cents  to  78  cents,  he  wishes, 
in  order  to  make  his  empiric  and  senseless  theory  look 
convincing,  to  reduce  the  price  as  much  as  possible. 
Consequently  we  are  not  surprised  when  we  find  that  he 
falsifies  the  true  figures,  91  ^  cents  a  bushel,  to  82  s/8  cents!" 

A  storm  of  hisses  arose  and  shouts  of  derision  rent  the 
air.  For  a  moment  it  looked  as  if  there  was  about  to  be 
a  repetition  of  the  scenes  of  the  previous  day  in  Plaster- 
ers' Hall  when  Coin's  deliberate  and  willful  falsification 
of  the  relative  amounts  of  gold  and  silver  in  the  world  in 


168  SOUND  MONEY. 

the  form  of  coin  and  bullion  had  been  shown  beyond  ques- 
tion to  amount  to  thousands  of  millions  of  dollars.  Men 
shouted  and  hissed  and  yelled  the  most  insulting  epithets 
at  the  contemptible  fellow  who  had  done  his  best  by  false- 
hood, trickery  and  deceit  to  lead,  not  only  them,  but  an 
entire  Nation  astray. 

While  the  storm  of  indignation  was  at  its  height  Com- 
missioner Rafferty  arose  from  his  seat  and  advancing  to 
the  footlights  held  up  his  right  hand  with  a  commanding 
gesture,  which  had  the  desired  effect  of  obtaining  silence. 
When  the  tumult  was  at  length  stilled  the  handsome 
young  Irishman  turned  to  Clench  and  bowing  gravely 
said,  with  impressive  earnestness: 

"Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  due  to  this  commission,  to  the 
representatives  of  organized  labor  assembled  here  and  to 
myself  that  I  should  make  an  explanation  in  regard  to  my 
position  and  the  degree  of  responsibility  I  have  had  in 
bringing  Mr.  Coin  before  the  laboring  people  of  this  city, 
I  may  say  of  this  country,  as  the  champion  of  a  financial 
system  which  seemed  to  me  to  be  logical  and  right. 

"I  read  this  man's  book,  sir,  as  I  fear  many  thous- 
ands of  others  have  done.  Being  quite  unlearned  even  in 
the  rudiments  of  political  economy,  for  I  am  free  to  make 
a  clean  breast  of  my  ignorance,  knowing  nothing  of 
either  the  inexorable  laws  of  commerce,  which  I  now  find 
must  govern  and  limit  every  monetary  system  which  man 
may  devise,  or  the  financial  history  of  the  United  States, 
I  fell  an  easy  victim  to  the  lies  and  impudent  assertions  of 
which  that  book,  as  I  am  now  convinced  to  my  shame 
and  sorrow,  is  composed. 

"I  was  instrumental,  sir,  in  bringing  Mr.  Coin  before 
the  Federation,  for  which  act  I  now  publicly  ask  the  par- 
don of  my  fellow  members,  During  the  five  days  in 


SOUND  MONEY.  169 

which  he  has  appeared  before  this  commission  it  is  only 
too  apparent  that  he  has  practiced  the  most  infamous  de- 
ception. Indeed,  in  the  light  of  this  last  exposure,  which 
unmasks  the  most  impudent  fraud  that  has  ever  come 
under  my  notice  in  debate,  I  only  wonder  .how  we  could 
so  long  have  tolerated  the  presence  of  a  man  of  this  char- 
acter among  the  honorable  gentlemen  and  patriotic  citi- 
zens, who  have  by  their  truthful  evidence  revealed  an  un- 
scrupulous and  dishonest  character  in  his  true  colors.  For 
that  I  tender  to  those  gentlemen,  Mr.  Ewing,  Mr.  Evans, 
Mr.  Knott,  Colonel  Forrest,  Professor  Laughlin  and  Mr. 
Haye  my  personal  apology  for  the  share  I  have  had  in 
associating  them  with  such  a  person. 
'  'In  conclusion,  sir,  I  move  you  that, 

"Whereas,  Harvey  Coin  has  been  upon  numerous  occasions 
openly  and  publicly  convicted  of  conduct  of  which  no  honorable 
man  would  be  guilty, 

"JZesolved,  That  the  said  Harvey  Coin  be  now  expelled  from 
this  platform,  and  that  hereafter  he  be  denied  a  hearing  before 
this  commission." 

During  the  delivery  of  this  terrible  denunciation 
silence,  intense  and  oppressive,  was  maintained.  Indeed, 
it  seemed  as  if  no  man  in  all  that  vast  throng  of  people 
even  drew  breath  from  the  moment  when  Commissioner 
Rafferty,  pale  as  marble  and  in  a  low  but  clear  and  dis- 
tinct voice  began  to  speak,  until  the  last  word  was  uttered. 

Meantime,  Coin  stood  like  one  petrified.  A  blow  so 
swift,  so  sweeping  and  so  terrible,  falling  from  the  one 
man  on  the  commission  whom  he  believed  he  controlled 
absolutely,  seemed  to  paralyze  his  powers  of  thought  and 
action,  and  he  stood  there  transfixed,  with  a  piteous  ex- 
pression in  his  eyes,  like  that  of  a  dumb  beast  in  the  pres- 
ence of  inevitable  death.  Those  who  sat  near  him  on  the 


170  SOUND  MONEY. 

platform  could  even  find  it  in  their  hearts  to  pity  him,  in 
spite  of  his  having  courted,  by  his  own  outrageous  conduct, 
the  withering  and  contemptuous  repudiation  which  fell  in 
an  unbroken  stream  from  the  lips  of  the  eloquent  young 
labor  leader. 

As  Commissioner  Rafferty  concluded,  Coin,  in  shame, 
turned  his  back  on  the  audience  to  hide  his  face;  then  for 
one  brief  instant  he  faced  his  accuser.  For,  perhaps,  three 
seconds  they  stood  thus  and  then,  with  a  despairing  ges- 
ture he  turned  to  the  other  two  members  of  the  commis- 
sion who  had  been  so  suddenly  constituted  his  judges. 

Instinctively  his  eye  sought  that  of  Commissioner 
Hobbs.  The  audience,  in  breathless  suspense,  maintained 
the  grewsome  silence.  Chairman  Clench  had  allowed  his 
head  to  fall  forward  on  his  breast,  and  it  was  evident  that 
his  well  balanced  mind  was  actively  at  work.  At  length 
the  eyes  of  Hobbs  and  Coin  met.  There  was  appeal,  desper- 
ate, pitiful  appeal,  in  those  of  the  latter,  while  Hobbs' 
were  cold  and  hard  and  sternly  unforgiving. 

The  silence  was  broken  by  Hobbs.  "I  shall  not 
speak,"  was  all  he  said. 

Then  Chairman  Clench  threw  back  his  head  and  sat 
erect. 

"The  resolution  is  a  just  one,"  he  said.  "I  second  it 
and  it  is  so  ordered. ' ' 

As  Clench  pronounced  the  sentence  Coin  .accepted  the 
inevitable,  and,  without  waiting  to  pick  up  a  single  book 
or  paper  of  the  many  he  had  brought  with  him,  he  slunk 
dejectedly  to  the  nearest  stage  entrance  and  disappeared. 

The  audience,  with  a  keen  appreciation  of  the  scene 
which  had  just  been  enacted  before  their  eyes,  generously 
refrained  from  any  demonstration  beyond  an  uncontroll- 
able sigh  of  relief  as  Coin  noiselessly  sneaked  away. 


- 


SOUND  MONEY.  171 

For  a  moment  there  was  an  awkward  silence  which 
was  relieved  by  the  tact  of  President  Baker,  of  the  Board 
of  Trade,  who,  as  if  one  of  the  most  sensational  scenes  in 
all  the  history  of  public  debate  had  not  just  taken  place, 
id  quietly: 

"I  wish  to  call  your  attention,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  the 
prices  for  1871,  when,  according  to  the  last  witness  we 
had  the  silver  unit  of  value, ' '  and,  referring  to  a  memor- 
andum book,  he  quoted:  "  'Corn  was  48  cents,  cotton 
17,  wheat  $1.04,  and  oats  40,  the  average  being  52^ 
cents.  In  1891,  under  a  single  gold  standard,  corn  was 
70,  wheat  $1.09,  oats  46,  cotton  .08,  the  average  being 
58^  cents.  In  1871  silver  was  $1.32  per  ounce  and  in 
1891  it  was  99  cents.  In  other  words,  the  average  prices 
of  the  great  staples,  wheat,  corn,  oats  and  cotton  rose  from 
52  1-4.  cents  in  1871  to  58  1-4.  cents  in  1891  while  silver  de- 
clined from  $1.32  to  99  cents!'  " 

The  pent  up  feelings  of  the  multitude  found  in  this 
telling  point  an  excuse  for  working  off  the  surplus  steam, 
and  the  applause  which  followed  was  vociferous  and  long 
continued.  When  the  house  had  become  somewhat 
quieter  Senator  Jones  arose  and  said,  with  a  glance  toward 
the  blackboard  where  the  figures  given  respectively  by 
Harvey  Coin  and  Secretary  Stone  still  remained: 

"One  swallow,  sir,  does  not  make  a  summer,  nor  the 
proven  dishonesty  of  one  man  convict  a  whole  party.  I 
do  not  desire  to  cast  any  suspicion  upon  the  figures  quoted 
from  the  Statistical  Abstract  by  the  secretary  of  your 
Board  of  Trade.  But,  sir,  there  are  other  commodities  in 
this  country,  other  crops  which  our  farmers  raise  in  bit- 
terness and  travail  in  an  almost  hopeless  attempt  to  keep 
that  insatiable  and*  inexorable  creditor,  the  usurer  of 
Great  Britain  or  of  our  own  Eastern  states,  from  fore- 


172  SOUND  MONEY. 

closing  the  mortgage  on  the  poor  little  spot  of  earth  which 
is  his  all — his  home.  And  what  applies  to  the  farmer 
applies  equally  to  the  poorer  and  middle  classes  of  our 
citizens.  They  are  all  debtors — all  mortgaged  to  the  cap- 
ital of  England  and  the  Eastern  States.  It  is  for  the  sake 
of  these  poor  people  that  we  must  obtain  relief  from  the 
load  of  debt  which  the  appreciation  of  gold  has  saddled 
upon  them." 

"With  the  Senator's  permission  I  would  like  to  reply 
to  that  statement,"  said  Sigmund  Zeisler,  rising.  "I 
think  I  can  disprove  the  common  idea  that  our  people  of 
small  means  are  all  in  debt  to  the  East  and  to  England  or 
that  it  is  capitalists,  even,  who  own  most  of  the  mort- 
gages. I  will  not  detain  the  gentleman  long.  * ' 

*  'With  pleasure,  sir, ' '  replied  Mr.  Jones,  giving  an  ex- 
ample of  that  'senatorial  courtesy'  so  frequently  men- 
tioned. 

1  'The  money  deposited  in  building  associations  and 
saving  banks,"  began  the  brilliant  young  lawyer,  "is  not 
simply  placed  in  safes  and  allowed  to  lie  there  until  called 
for.  It  is  loaned  out  at  interest  and  kept  in  constant  cir- 
culation in  order  that  it  may  earn  a  profit  for  the  thrifty, 
though  humble,  people  who  have  saved  it  from  their  earn- 
ings. They  have  denied  themselves  many  little  luxuries 
in  order  that  they  may  put  something  by  for  a  rainy  day, 
as  the  saying  is. 

"According  to  the  report  of  the  United  States  commis- 
sioner of  labor,  there  were  in  this  country  on  January  i , 
1893*  5.836  building  associations,  with  1,745,725  individ- 
ual shareholders.  Their  total  assets  amounted  to  $526, - 
852,885.  According  to  the  report  of  the  comptroller  of  the 
currency,  the  savings  deposits  in  the  various  savings 
banks  in  the  United  States  in  1892  amounted  to  $1,712,- 


SOUND  MONEY.  173 

760,026;  the  number  of  depositors  was  4,781,695.  The 
census  of  1890  shows  that  the  then  net  value  of  all  life  in- 
surance policies  outstanding  in  the  United  States  on 
December  31,  1889,  was  $618,468,059;  the  number  of 
policies  being  4,537,286,  and  the  amount  of  insurance 
$3,691,686,594.  If  you  figure  up  these  items  the  total  re- 
sult reaches  in  the  neighborhood  of  $3,000,000,000.  This 
sum  represents  credits  owned  by  persons  numbering  more 
than  11,000,000  people,  and  an  average  for  each  of  $258. 
They  are  the  creditors  who  will  be  most  deeply  affected  if 
they  are  to  be  repaid  in  depreciated  silver  dollars. 

"Another  point.  The  pension  list  in  our  last  budget 
footed  up,  in  round  figures,  $140,000,000.  The  crippled 
soldier  who  fought  for  the  preservation  of  the  union;  the 
poor  old  widow  who  receives  the  paltry  sum  of  $8  a  month 
to  compensate  her  for  the  loss  of  her  husband,  will  have 
their  pensions, — debts,  justly  owed  them  by  Uncle  Sam 
and  payable  four  times  a  year,  cut  in  two  by  the  free 
coinage  of  silver. 

'  'The  laborer  is  a  creditor  of  his  employer  for  the  value 
of  his  labor  at  the  end  of  every  day.  He  will  receive  his 
pay  in  50  cent  dollars,  and  all  the  employes  of  all  the 
governments,  municipal,  state,  and  United  States,  whose 
salaries  are  fixed  by  law,  will  find  themselves  paid  with 
dollars  of  only  one-half  of  their  present  purchasing 
power. 

'  'The  silvery-tongued  demagogues  tell  you  that  silver 
is  your  friend,  silver  is  the  money  of  the  people.  But  I 
say  to  you,  that  there  is  no  money  too  good  for  the  peo- 
ple; that  there  is  no  money  good  enough  to  pay  the  or- 
phans and  widows  of  the  heroes  of  the  late  war,  no  dollars 
big  enough  and  valuable  enough  to  pay  the  man  who 
faithfully  toils  for  his  bread,  and  daily  adds  to  the  re-. 


174 


SOUND  MONEY. 


sources  and  greatness  of  this  country." 

This  impassioned  address,  brief  though  it  was,  bristled 
with  facts  which  went  home  to  the  hearts  of  the  audience, 
and  Mr.  Zeisler  resumed  his  seat  with  enthusiastic  ap- 
plause and  cheers  ringing  in  his  ears.  While  he  was 
speaking,  the  written  record  of  Coin's  disgrace  — the  par- 
alleled tables,  had  been  rubbed  off  the  blackboard,  and  in 
its  place  now  stood  a  full  table  of  the  average  export 
prices  of  wheat,  corn,  oats  and  cotton,  together  with  the 
average  price  of  silver  from  1870  to  1895,  put  there  by 
President  Baker  and  Secretary  Stone  of  the  Board  of 
Trade. 

EXPORT   PRICES   OF   WHEAT,    CORN,    OATS,    COTTON,  AND 
SILVER,  IN   THE  NEW  YORK  MARKET. 


Years. 

Wheat,  bu. 

Corn,  bu. 

Oats,  bu. 

Cotton,  Ib. 

Silver,  oz. 

1870 

.94 

.55 

.43 

24. 

1.33 

71 

1.04 

.48 

.40 

16.9 

1.33 

72 

1.25 

.40 

.34 

22.2 

1.32 

73 

1.24 

.48 

.37 

20.1 

1.30 

74 

1.15 

.65 

.52 

17.9 

1.28 

75 

.94 

.42 

.36 

15.5 

1.25 

76 

1.00 

.37 

.35 

13. 

1.16 

77 

1.04 

.36 

.29 

11.8 

1.20 

78 

1.19 

.51 

.31 

11.2 

1.15 

79 

1.21 

.50 

.37 

10.8  ' 

1.12 

1880 

1.27 

.55 

.43 

11.5 

1.14 

81 

1.32 

.63 

.46 

12. 

1.14 

82 

1.28 

.80 

.52 

11.5 

1.14 

83 

1.17 

.65 

.43 

11.9 

1.11 

84 

.97 

.61 

.36  ' 

10.9 

Ml 

85 

.96 

.53 

.36 

10.5 

1.06 

86 

.88 

.48 

.35 

9.3 

.99 

87 

.89 

.51 

.34 

10.2 

.98 

88 

.97 

.57 

.35 

10. 

.94 

89 

.88 

.43 

.29 

10.6 

.93 

1890 

.98 

.48 

.29 

11. 

1.04 

91 

1.09 

.70 

.46 

8.6 

.99 

92 

.91 

.54 

,36 

7.7 

.87 

93 

.74 

.50 

.36 

8.6 

.78 

94 

.61 

.51 

,37 

6.9 

.63 

95 

SOUND  MONEY.  175 

They  had  thus  fairly  and  squarely  met  the  issue  raised 
by  Coin,  with  bogus  statistics,  by  giving  the  true  figures; 
and  so  far  as  the  leading  staples  are  concerned,  they  had 
demonstrated  that  the  mythical  '  'sympathy  with  silver' ' 
claim  is  an  arrant  absurdity. 

"When  I  made  way  for  my  able  young  friend,  Mr. 
Zeisler,"  resumed  Senator  Jones,  "I  was  about  to  make  a 
statement  and  issue  a  challenge.  I  maintain  that  though 
the  prices  of  a  few  agricultural  products  may  not  prove 
my  case,  the  fact  is  that  gold  has  appreciated,  and  that  to 
compel  debtors  who  borrowed  under  a  double  standard, 
and  who  then  had  the  privilege  of  repaying  their  loans  in 
silver,  to  pay  in  gold  and  forbid  them  to  pay  in  silver 
coined  under  similar  circumstances  is  the  height  of  injus- 
tice. Free  coinage  and  restoration  of  the  legal  tender 
power  of  silver  will  correct  that.  Prices  of  nearly  all 
commodities  have  fallen  in  a  demonstrable  ratio  with  sil- 
ver, and  I  am  prepared  to  stand  or  fall  on  that  statement. 
I  notice  that  Mr.  Atkinson  of  Boston  is  with  us.  I  defy 
him  to  disprove  it  and  challenge  him  to  the  proof. ' ' 

This  defiance  was  applauded  by  a  number  of  men  who 
were  attending  a  session  of  the  commission  for  the  first 
time  and  knew  nothing  of  the  complete  victory  won  by 
gold  over  silver  in  all  the  other  branches  of  the  wide  dis- 
cussion the  subject  had  received. 

"I  accept  the  challenge,"  said  Mr.  Atkinson,  taking  a 
position  in  the  center  of  the  stage.  "I  am  prepared  to 
prove  that  the  reduction  in  cost  from  1873  to  1890,  the 
last  year  for  which  I  have  figures,  in  agriculture,  manu- 
factures, transportation  and  commerce  will  more  than 
account  for  all  the  reduction  in  prices,  and  that  the  state- 
ment that  gold  has  appreciated  is  an  economic  blunder. 
I  will  prove  that  under  the  gold  standard  men  are  paid 


176  SOUND  MONEY. 

higher  wages,  and  that  the  purchasing  power  of  what  they 
earn  is  much  greater  than  in  1873  or  m  any  Year  before  it. ' ' 

'Trove  that,"  shouted  a  man  in  the  top  gallary,  "and 
we  will  vote  against  free  silver.  But  you'll  have  to  prove 
it  so  that  we  all  can  understand  it."  This  interjection 
was  applauded  heartily.  The  man  had  evidently  voiced 
the  sentiment  of  the  meeting. 

"During  the  panic  of  1893,"  continued  Mr.  Atkinson, 
"which  was  caused  entirely  by  the  attack  on  our  gold 
basis  by  the  advocates  of  free  silver,  and  the  fear  that  they 
might  succeed,  prices  were  forced  down  below  cost  by  the 
paralysis  of  trade  and  industry  which  ensued.  Vast  nurnr 
bers  of  men  and  women  were  forced  into  idleness;  the 
capital  of  the  country  was  impaired  and  our  progress  was 
crippled.  The  rich  grew  no  richer  and  many  of  the  poor 
were  brought  to  the  verge  of  starvation.  When  the  his- 
tory of  that  nightmare  of  national  calamity  comes  to  be 
written  the  names  of  the  men  who  brought  it  upon  us 
will  live  only  to  be  held  up  as  examples  of  perverted  in- 
telligence or  of  selfish  greed  and  public  dishonesty  almost 
beyond  belief. ' ' 

At  this  point  John  Sherman  and  William  E.  Mason, 
often  called  "The  People's  William"  because  of  the  suc- 
cessful stand  he  took  against  closing  the  World's  Fair  on 
Sundays  in  Judge  Stein's  court,  looked  hard  at  the  group 
of  silver  senators  who,  with  ex- Judge  McConnell,  '  'Silver' ' 
Bland  and  Congressman  Bryan,  of  Nebraska,  sat  on  the 
opposite  corner  of  the  stage. 

"In  order  to  demonstrate  my  arguments,"  continued 
the  witness,  ( 'it  will  be  necessary  to  use  what  are  called 
'index  numbers,'  as  Mr.  Coin  in  his  'Financial  School' 
has  already  done.  There  may  be  some  of  you  who  do  not 
understand  the  term  'index  numbers,'  and  in  order  that 


SOUND  MONEY.  177 

you  may  appreciate  the  facts  I  shall  make  use  of  I  will 
explain:  The  average  price  of  a  commodity  is  taken  for 
a  certain  year  and  represented  by  the  number  100.  That 
is  par.  Then  the  average  price  of  the  same  commodity  is 
taken  in  other  years  and  computed  in  relation  to  the  price 
of  the  index  year.  According  as  its  ratio  is  higher .  or 
lower  it  is  added  to,  or  subtracted  from,  100;  and  thus  the 
ratio  of  increase  or  decrease  is  expressed  in  its  most  con- 
venient form.  For  the  purpose  of  this  demonstration  I 
shall  not  begin  with  the  year  1873,  as  Coin  in  his  book 
has  done;  nor  shall  I,  as  he  has  done,  take  only  the 
English  prices  prepared  by  Augustus  Sauerbeck  in  his 
index  table.  That  would  prevent  you  farmers  and  you 
men  who  live  by  your  labor,  and  depend  upon  daily 
wages,  from  seeing  the  effect  of  cheap  money  on  prices 
and  wages.  You  want  to  know  all  about  that,  don't 
you?" 

'  'You  bet  we  do !"  shouted  a  hundred  voices  in  chorus. 

'  'Therefore, ' '  continued  the  witness,  '  'I  take  the  prices 
and  wages  from  the  Report  of  the  Finance  Committee  of 
the  United  States  Senate,  computed  under  the  direction 
of  Commissioner  Carroll  D.  Wright.  You  all  know  him." 

The  name  of  Mr.  Wright,  whose  services  to  the  cause 
of  labor  have  been  so  highly  appreciated,  was  greeted 
with  applause. 

"If  you  need  any  further  guarantee,"  resumed  Mr. 
Atkinson,  "I  might  refer  you  to  my  friend,  John  Sher- 
man." Again  the  audience  applauded.  "Hush!  for 
goodness  sake,"  pleaded  the  witness.  "I  was  going  to 
say,  if  you  had  allowed  me  to  finish,  that  I  would  refer 
to  Senator  Sherman  but  for  the  fact  that  he  is  the  bold, 
bad  man  who  committed  that  horrible  crime  in  the  dead 
of  night  away  back  in  1873." 


178. 


SOUND  MONEY. 


This  sally  provoked  a  roar  of  laughter  and  applause, 
and' in  obedience  to  repeated  cries  of  "Sherman,  Sher- 
man," Ohio's  greatest  son  was  obliged  to  rise  and  bow 
several  times. 

"These  prices,"  continued  the  witness,  "as  well  as  the 
London  prices,  compiled  by  Coin's  chosen  authority, 
Augustus  Sauerbeck,  who  is  one  of  the  most  reliable 
statisticians  in  the  world,  have  been  computed  and  com- 
pared by  Prof.  Roland  P.  Falconer,  of  Johns  Hopkins 
University. ' '  At  this  point  Mr.  Atkinson  beckoned  and 
John  Barstow  advanced  from  '  'prompt' '  entrance  with  a 
big  calico  banner,  upon  which  had  been  painted  a  table, 
showing  prices,  wages,  and  purchasing  power  of  wages  in 
1860  and  in  5-year  periods  until  1890: 

PRICKS,    WAGES   AND   PURCHASING   POWER. 


1860 

1865 

1870 

1875 

1880 

1885 

1890 

Meat  
Other  food  
Cloths  and   clothing  
Fuel  and  lighting  
Metals  and  implements  
Lumber  and  building  materials.  . 
Drugs  and  chemicals  
House  furnishing 

100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 

197. 
240.3 
299.2 
237.8 
191.4 
182.1 
271.6 
181   1 

174.3 
146.3 
139.4 
196.5 
127.8 
148.3 
149.6 
121  6 

140.4 
135 
120.1 
156.5 
117.5 
143.7 
144.2 
95 

103.6 
116.9 
104.5 
100.2 
96.3 
130.9 
113.1 
85  2 

107.6 
97.2 
84.8 
89.6 
77.4 
126.6 
86.9 
70  1 

99.6 
103.5 
82.4 
92.5 
73.2 
123.7 
87.9 
69  5 

Miscellaneous  
Average  of  all  prices  

100 
100 

202.8 
216  8 

148.7 
142  3 

122.9 
127  6 

109.8 
106  9 

97.5 
93 

89.7 
92  3 

Average  of  all  wages  
Average  wages  by  importance.  .  . 
Salaries  of  cit  y  teachers  

100 
100 
100 

143.1 
148.6 
134  7 

162.2 
167.1 
186  3 

158.4 
158 
188  1 

141.5 
143 

182  8 

150.7 
155.9 
186  3 

158.9 
168.2 
186.3 

Paper  money  
Gold  price  of  silver  bull'n  in  I/d'n 
Purchasing  power  of  wages  

100 
100 
100 

49.5 
99 
66 

81.1 
98.2 
114.1 

88.8 
92.2 
194.1 

100 
84.7 
132.3 

100 

78.7 
162 

100 
77.4 
172.1 

This  big  banner  was  suspended  by  two  halliards  low- 
ered from  the  "gridiron"  above  by  one  of  Mr.  Barstow' s 
assistants,  and  it  hung  over  the  heads  of  those  on  the 
stage,  the  letters  and  figures  being  large  enough  to  be 
plainly  read  in  every  part  of  the  house. 

"The  first  thing  I  want  to  call  to  the  attention  of 
every  farmer,  every  salaried  man  and  every  wage  worker 


SOUND  MONEY.  179 

in  this  magnificent  audience,"  resumed  Mr.  Atkinson, 
'  'is  the  effect  of  a  debased  currency — cheap  money,  whether 
it  be  greenbacks  at  a  discount  or  silver  coined  far  above 
its  value  and  unsupported  by  gold  and  the  credit  of  a  sol- 
vent government,  is  sure  to  have  upon  wages  and  the 
things  that  wages  must  buy. 

"You  will  see  by  looking  at  the  table  that  the  average 
of  all  prices  and  the  average  of  all  wages  is  taken  as  100 
in  1860.  By  1865  we  had  high  prices  as  the  result  of 
cheap  mone}'.  It  was  paper  money,  which  in  1860  had 
been  represented  by  100,  or  par,  and  now  had  fallen  in 
value  to  49.5.  Silver  had  also  dropped  one  point,  from 
100  to  99.  All  prices  had  advanced  to  216.8,  in  paper 
money,  greenbacks,  and  wages  had  also  advanced — but 
not,  as  the  free  silver  men  are  trying  to  tell  you  they  will, 
'keeping  step  with  advancing  prices. '  Wages  had  ad- 
vanced to  143.1  in  paper,  and  owing  to  the  unequal  ad- 
vance in  prices  their  purchasing  power  was  only  .66  in- 
stead of  100  as  in  1 860.  Do  you  understand  that  clearly?' ' 

"Sure  thing,"  "You  bet,"  "Anybody  could,"  and 
similar  shouts  from  the  crowd  assured  the  eminent 
economist  that  he  had  chosen  the  right  method  to  impress 
the  facts  upon  his  audience. 

"Now,"  he  resumed,  "let  us  see  what  happened  to  us 
in  consequence  of  our  abandoning  the  free  coinage  of  sil- 
ver by  the  law  of  1873.  That  is  the  charge  that  we  are 
here  to  meet.  We  resumed  specie  payments  in  1879  and 
therefore  the  state  of  things  in  1880  will  clearly  indicate 
the  evils  of  adopting  a  gold  basis  and  standing  ready  to 
redeem  all  our  promises  to  pay,  in  gold.  By  this  time 
the  era  of  high  prices  had  taken  a  turn,  and  we  find  the 
average  of  all  prices  indicated  by  106.9  while  wages  had 
also  gone  back  to  141.5,  but  paper  money  was  again  at 


180  SO  UND  MONE  Y. 

par,  and  therefore  the  purchasing  power  of  wages  was 
132.3  instead  of  66;  while  their  average  amount  had  in- 
creased from  100  in  1860  to  141.5.  Labor  was  better 
paid  and  lived  in  greater  comfort  than  it  had  twenty 
years  before.  And  yet,  in  spite  of  this  magnificent  pros- 
perity silver  had  declined  from  100  in  1860  to  84.7." 

This  plan  of  bringing  the  whole  history  of  prices, 
wages,  cheap  money  and  its  effects  down  to  a  few  figures, 
so  that  it  could  be  understood  as  readily  as  if  it  were  a 
map,  was  new  to  the  audience,  and  the  witness  was 
cheered  for  his  lucid  explanation  of  the  meaning  of  the 
table.  Thereafter  they  would  be  able  to  read  its  meaning 
for  themselves. 

"You  will  observe,"  continued  Mr.  Atkinson,  "that 
while  the  average  of  all  prices  has  fallen  from  100  in  1860 
to  92.3  in  1890  the  average  of  all  wages  has  risen  from 
100  to  158.9  and  that  the  purchasing  power  of  wages  has 
increased  more  than  72  per  cent. 

"To  make  this  a  little  more  pointed  in  relation  to  the 
charge  of  our  friends,  the  enemy,  that  an  awful  deed  was 
done  when  silver  was  demonetized  in  1873,  we  will  take 
the  figures  closest  to  that  year,  1870,  and  compare  with 
them  the  figures  of  1890.  L,et  us  see  how  the  wage 
worker  has  suffered  during  this  time.  In  1870  the  aver- 
age of  all  prices  was  142.3,  wages  162.2  and  purchasing 
power  114.1  in  greenbacks.  In  1890  prices  were  92.3, 
wages  158.9  and  purchasing  power >  in  gold ',  IJ2.  //" 

If  one  might  judge  by  the  applause  with  which  this 
overwhelming  repudiation  of  the  free  coinage  absurdity 
was  received,  wage  workers  were  well  satisfied  to  have 
endured  the  'oppression'  and  'wrong'  which  they  had  suf- 
fered during  those  20  years  of  the  grinding  tyranny  of 
a  'British  gold'  standard!  It  seemed  to  them  -that  any- 


SO  UND  MONE  Y.  181 

thing  which  would  reduce  the  price  of  all  they  had  to  buy 
50  per  cent,  increase  the  purchasing  power  of  wages  58 
per  cent,  and  wages  themselves  from  162.20  in  paper 
money  at  81.10  to  158. 90  in  gold,  wasjust  about  the  right 
kind  of  thing  for  the  wage  worker  to  pin  his  faith  to. 

"We  don't  deny  that  prices  have  fallen,"  interrupted 
Senator  Jones.  "We  know  they  have  and  say  that  it  is 
because  gold  has  become  more  valuable  and  money  is 
scarce.  It  takes  less  gold  to  buy  more  commodities — 
that's  all." 

' '  If  gold  has  appreciated,  the  first  place  in  which  that  ap- 
preciation would  show  itself  would  be  in  the  interest  exacted 
for  its  use  by  those  who  own  it, ' '  replied  Mr.  Atkinson. 

1 '  What  is  the  fact?  Since  1 873  the  rate  of  interest  has 
declined  almost  one- half  to  the  immense  benefit  of  all  bor- 
rowers— farmers,  manufacturers  and  traders  as  well  as  the 
many  thousands  of  working  people  who  have  built  homes 
for  themselves  and  paid  for  them  little  by  little  by  means 
of  mortgage  loans  and  installment  payments.  Because 
there  is  more  gold  in  the  world  and  because  the  conven- 
iences for  its' rapid  circulation  are  so  highly  developed,  the 
competition  of  the  lenders  is  much  more  keen  and  the  bor- 
rower profits  accordingly. 

"If  gold  has  appreciated  it  will  certainly  purchase 
more  land  to-day  than  it  did  in  1873.  Especially  will  this 
be  so  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  average  price  of  all  com- 
modities has  fallen  8  per  cent.  If  8  per  cent,  the  fall  in 
all  prices,  represents  the  increase  in  the  value  of  gold,  it 
necessarily  follows  that  land  has  fallen  at  least  that  much. 
Has  it? 

"The  assessed  valuation  of  all  the  land  in  the  United 
States  by  the  census  0/1870  was  $9,914.^80,000.  By  the 
census  of  i8go  it  had  increased  to  $18, 956 ,556 ,000." 


182 


SOUND  MONEY. 


"Our  population  has  increased,"  objected  the  Senator. 

"True,"  admitted  Mr.  Atkinson.  "Our  population 
has  increased  61  per  cent,  but  th-j  assessed  valuation  of  our 
lands  has  increased 90  per  cent!' ' 

This  was.  a  body  blow  and  the  great  silver  advocate 
felt  as  if  some  of  the  wind  had  been  knocked  out  of  him, 
while  the  audience  expressed  its  delight  by  vigorous  hand 
clapping. 

"Labor  is  a  commodity,  is  it  not?"  continued  Mr. 
Atkinson;  and  the  silver  senator  nodded.  "It  is  bought 
and  sold  every  day,"  continued  the  witness. 

"It  is,"  admitted  the  Senator. 

'  'Then  why  doesn't  less  gold  buy  more  of  it  as  of  any 
other  commodity?"  asked  Mr.  Atkinson;  and  the  gentle- 
man from  Nevada  wondered  what  had  induced  him  to 
trifle  with  the  machinery. 

"Now  to  attack  the  subject  in  detail,"  resumed  Mr. 
Atkinson,  when  the  applause  had  subsided,  "we  will  take 
up  the  subject  of  food,  beginning  with  meat.  I  present 
this  table, ' '  and  with  that  he  hung  a  small  banner,  con- 
taining a  table,  over  the  blackboard: 

MEAT. 


1860 

1870 

1890 

In  Gold. 

In  Paper. 

In  Gold. 

United  States     

100 

mQ 

no  « 

I^nglish  prices  in  crold  •  • 

100 

108 

01    1 

'  'The  causes  for  a  reduction  in  the  price  of  animal 
food  since  1860  are  the  establishment  of  great  packing 
houses,  inventions  in  canning  provisions,  the  use  of  cold 
storage  and  the  change  from  sail  to  steam  on  the  ocean. 
In  production,  the  rediscovery  and  use  of  ensilage  and 
many  other  improvements  in  feeding  stock. 


SOUND  MONEY.  183 

"In  1869  the  meat  supply  of  great  cities  was  limited 
to  the  local  production;  even  in  1870  the  movement  of 
live  or  dressed  meat  by  rail  was  insignificant,  and  by  steam- 
ships less.  In  1860-70  the  beeves  of  South  America  and 
Texas  were  slaughtered  mainly  or  only  for  their  hides; 
they  possessed  no  international  food  value.  In  1890 
every  part  of  the  animal  had  become  an  article  of  inter- 
national commerce.  Had  not  the  purchasing  power  of 
the  great  masses  of  the  people  increased  with  the  stability 
of  the  gold  standard,  and  with  the  rise  in  wages,  a  great 
reduction  in  the  price  of  animal  food  must  have  ensued  to 
the  detriment  of  the  farmers." 

'  'The  speaker  paused,  and  turning  to  the  group  of  silver 
advocates  asked:  ' 'Are  not  these  causes  alone  sufficient 
to  account  for  all  the  reduction?  If  not,  there  are  others. ' ' 

The  audience  tittered  at  the  grave  political  economist 
having  unconsciously  lapsed  into  what  sounded  like  a 
slangy  expression. 

"Silver  also  fell,"  said  ex- Judge  McConnell. 

"Yes,"  assented  the  witness,  "from  TOO  to  77.4.,  while 
meat  fell  from  100  to  99.6.  Note  that,  my  agricultural 
friends!" 

The  audience  clapped  and  cheered  wildly  at  the  dis- 
comfiture of  the  leader  of  the  free  silver  party  in  Illinois 

"What  about  wheat?"  asked  ex-congressman  Bland, 
suavety  trying  to  cover  the  confusion  of  his  disciple  by 
calling  attention  to  the  product  whose  fall  in  price,  more 
than  that  of  any  other  commodity  in  the  list,  has  been 
made  use  of  by  the  free-coinage  demagogues  to  draw  the 
farmers  into  their  ranks. 

"Wheat,"  replied  Mr.  Atkinson,  "is  not  separately 
dealt  with  but  is  included  in  the  next  class,  foods  other 
than  meat,  as  the  most  important  commodity,  in  the  list." 


184  SOUND  MONEY. 

"May  I  answer  that  question?"  shouted  a  small  man 
who  arose  from  his  chair  in  the  first  box  to  the  right  of 
the  stage. 

"That's  Ed.  Pardridge,  the  great  bear  operator  on  the 
Board, ' '  whispered  Secretary  Stone  to  Chairman  Clench. 

"What!  That  little  chap?"  exclaimed  the  big  black- 
smith in  surprise,  "why  I  thought  he  must  be  a  regular 
giant!" 

"He  is,"  replied  Mr.  Stone,  with  a  chuckle. 

'  'The  commission  will  be  pleased  to  hear  anything  on 
the  subject  of  wheat  from  Mr.  Ed.  Pardridge,"  announced 
the  chairman,  and  people  craned  their  necks  and  strained 
their  eyes  to  get  a  good  look  at  the  celebrated  "plunger." 

"The  reason  wheat  has  fallen,"  said  Mr.  Pardridge, 
addressing  the  commission  from  his  box,  "is  over-pro- 
duction; or  rather,  over-supply,  for  there  can't  be  any 
over-production  of  food  so  long  as  anybody  goes  hungry. ' ' 
This  sentiment  met  with  the  approval  of  the  audience. 
"A  few  years  ago,"  continued  Mr.  Pardridge,  "the  re- 
public of  Argentina  exported  practically  no  wheat.  In 
1894  she  exported  sixty  millions  of  bushels,  and  every 
bushel  entered  foreign  markets  in  competition  with  our 
own  wheat.  The  crops  of  Australia  have  increased  im- 
mensely; Russia  is  spreading  her  wheat  fields  into  Siberia, 
whence  the  new  Siberian  railway  affords  an  outlet  to 
the  markets  of  the  world.  The  increased  crops  of  India 
and  the  Canadian  Northwest  Territories  are  also  factors 
in  this  over-supply,  which  is  emphasized  by  a  lessened 
consumption.  Other  food  articles  are  replacing  wheat  to 
a  very  considerable  extent,  and  every  pound  of  other  food 
introduced  into  the  market  lessens  the  demand  for  wheat. 
A  correct  understanding  of  these  facts  would  have  kept 
money  in  the  pockets  of  the  gentlemen  who  have  been 


SOUND  MONEY. 


185 


trying  to  'bull'  wheat  during  the  last  three  years."  The 
audience  laughed  and  the  circus  man,  who  had  squeezed 
onto  the  platform,  on  the  plea  that  he  was  one  of  the 
witnesses,  inquired: 

"Don't  you  believe  in  free  silver,  Mr.  Pardridge?" 

"Not  while  I'm  awake,"  replied  the  speculator;  and 
the  audience  snickered. 

"Coin,  in  his  book,  says  it  was  on  account  of  your 
knowledge  of  the  silver  question  that  you  have  been  so 
successful,"  persisted  "Hey  Rube." 

"Well,  you  know  what  Coin  is.  'Nuff  said,"  replied 
the  little  "bear,",  and  he  resumed  his  seat  amid  a  roar  of 
laughter. 

"We  now  come  to  other  food  products,"  continued 
Mr.  Atkinson,  as  he  spread  another  table  over  the  first. 

FOODS  OTHER  THAN   MEATS — CHIEFLY   GRAIN. 


GRAINS,  ROOTS,  FRUITS,   VEGE- 

1860 

1870 

1890 

TABLES,  SUGAR. 

Gold. 

Paper. 

Gold. 

United  States  

100 

146  3 

1035 

English  prices  in  gold  

100 

88.8 

66.6 

"The  influences  tending  to  great  reductions  since  1870 
have  chiefly  affected  grain  and  sugar.  Since  1873  the 
sources  from  which  the  greater  part  of  the  wheat  exported 
from  the  United  States  is  produced  have  been  opened  by 
railroads  and  waterways.  Machinery  has  greatly  reduced 
the  cost  of  production,  and  almost  revolutionary  improve- 
ments have  been  made  in  milling.  The  result  has  been 
to  reduce  the  cost  of  placing  wheat  on  sale  in  London  or 
Liverpool  from  Minnesota  or  Dakota  by  an  amount  equal  to 
one-half  the  price  at  the  average  of  1870. 


186 


SOUND  MONEY. 


' 'In  the  production  and  refining  of  sugar,  changes  as 
great  have  been  made.  Increased  power  of  consumption 
has  alone  kept  the  prices  of  other  foods  than  meat,  wheat 
excepted,  above  the  level  that  improvements  warrant. 
The  great  reduction  in  t lie  price  of  wheat  is  due  to  the  un- 
paralleled increase  in  the  world 's  crop  as  Mr.  Pardridge  has 
pointed  out.  If  the  supply  should  be  lessened  the  price 
would  advance. 

' '  Cloths  and  clothing  and  textile  materials,  chiefly 
cotton  and  wool  will  be  the  next  subject: 

CLOTH,    CLOTHING,    TEXTILE   MATERIAL. 


CHIEFLY  WOOL    AND  COTTON   NOT 
CONVERTED. 

I860 

1870 

1890 

Gold.     - 

Paper. 

Gold. 

United  States. 

100 
100 

139.4 
124 

81.1 

76.5 

English  prices 

The  civil  war  raised  the  price  of  cotton  at  its  highest 
point  to  $1.90,  in  paper,  per  pound  and  also  produced  al- 
most a  cotton  famine  in  England.  The  war  demand  for 
woolens  carried  the  demand  for  wool  to  an  extravagant 
point.  Then  came  free  labor  assisted  by  tools  and  instru- 
ments with  which  slaves  could  not  be  trusted,  and  vastly 
increased  cotton  crops  followed.  Cotton  seed,  previously 
wasted,  became  worth  $30,000,000  a  year.  Australia, 
from  an  insignificant  position,  became  the  greatest  wool 
producer  in  the  world.  Immense  improvements  were 
made  in  factory  machinery;  the  use  of  the  sewing  machine 
became  almost  universal  in  the  United  States,  and  very 
general  in  England.  In  every  branch  of  these  industries 
the  labor  cost  was  lessened,  while  the  earnings'  were  aug- 
mented. ' ' 


SOUND  MONEY. 


187 


"Will  the  gentleman  be  kind  enough  to  explain  that 
paradox?"  said  ex-Mayor  Hopkins,  "it's  too  tough  for 
me." 

"From  my  own  investigation  and  knowledge  of  this 
branch  of  industry,"  replied  Mr.  Atkinson,  "with  which 
I  have  been  connected  as  man  and  boy  from  1842  to  1894, 
I  can  state  that  the  productive  capacity  of  the  average 
operative  in  a  given  mill,  working  year  by  year  through- 
out the  period  named,  has  increased  from  4,321 
yards  a  year  in  1830  to  9,607  yards  in  1840,  and 
is  now  over  30,000  yards.  Hours  of  labor  have  been 
reduced  from  14  in  1842  to  10  at  the  present  time, 
and  though  wages  have  been  increased  from  86  in  184.5  to 
100  in  1860,  and  165.1  in  1890;  and  thus  the  earnings  of 
labor  ivere  augmented  in  two  ways,  by  the  increased  effic- 
iency of  the  operative  the  cost  of  labor  has  been  decreased." 

This  telling  explanation  was  so  satisfactory  to  Mr. 
Hopkins  that  he  maintained  an  unbroken  silence  from 
that  time  until  nearly  the  close  of  the  session. 

"We  shall  now  see  what  we  can  find  in  the  line  of 
metals,  implements  and  average  minerals, ' '  resumed  the 
witness.  This  table  shows  the  reduction: 

METALS,    IMPLEMENTS  AND   AVERAGE   MINERALS. 


1860 

1870 

1890 

Gold. 

Paper. 

Gold. 

Metals  and    implements  —  United 
States           

100 

127.8 

74.9 

Average  minerals  —  English   prices 

100 

94.2 

87.4 

"There  is  no  standard  by  which  the  progress  of  nations 
can  be  more  surely  gauged  than  by  the  increasing  use  of 
iron,  steel  and  copper.  The  recorded  production  of  iron 


188  SOUND  MONEY. 

ore  in  the  world  in  1860  was  less  than  7,000,000  tons;  in 
the  United  States  a  little  over  900,000  tons.  In  1892,  in 
the  world,  approximately,  2 6, 000,000  tons;  United  States, 
9,157,000  tons.  Production  of  Bessemer  steel  in  the 
United  States,  1860,  none;  1892,  4,168,000  tons. 

' '  The  dominion  of  iron  and  steel  has  passed  to  the 
United  States  through  the  inventions  of  Bessemer,  Holley, 
Siemens,  Reese,  Thomas,  Gilchrist  and  a  host  of  others, 
which  have  made  astounding  reductions  in  the  labor  cost. 
These,  with  the  opening  of  new  mines  in  the  northwest  and 
south  and  of  the  great  coking  coal  mines  of  Virginia  and 
other  states,  give  adequate  reasons  for  much  greater  reduc- 
tions than  have  taken  place. 

"Similar  inventions  and  the  opening  of  new  sources  of 
supply  of  copper  and  silver  need  only  be  referred  to  in  order 
to  comprehend  the  lessened  prices  of  these  metals;  while 
aluminum  has  been  added  and  the  invention  of  new  alloys 
has  enlarged  the  field  of  use.  Hard  times,  the  sternest 
schoolmaster,  brought  prices  in  1894  to  the  lowest  point; 
yet  the  product  is  now  increasing  and  promises  soon  to 
reach  the  highest  point  ever  known. 

''Tell  us  something  more  about  wages,"  shouted  a 
gentleman  in  the  first  balcony.  "That's  what  we  want 
to  hear. ' ' 

"Certainly,  my  friend,"  replied  Mr.  Atkinson.  "It 
is  natural  that  you  should  be  quite  as  anxious  about  the 
commodity  you  sell,  labor,  as  about  the  goods  you  buy.  I 
have  prepared  a  table,  showing  the  advance  of  wages  in 
eleven  principal  trades,  in  particular,  as  well  as  all  indus- 
tries in  general,  in  1890,  as  compared  with  1860,  together 
with  the  difference  in  the  prices  of  commodities  and  the 
purchasing  power  of  wages: 


SOUND  MONEY. 


189 


TRADE  OR  OCCUPATION. 

1860. 

1890. 

T/l8    A 

Building  trades  •                     

140  .4 

IOO 

1  /•*  -3 

IOO 

rgc     T 

IOO 

167    7 

IOO 

iu/  .  / 
177    Q 

IVIetals  and  metal  goods     ....    .  •  

IOO 

148  6 

IOO 

IA&   A. 

IOO 

jfir    2 

IOO 

167.8 

Salaries  of  city  teachers  

IOO 
IOO 

180.3 

186.1 

IOO 

Q2  .  1 

Purchasing  power  of  all  wages  

IOO 

y**o 

172.3 

"This  table  clearly  shows  the  improvement  of  the  cir- 
cumstances of  those  engaged  in  the  individual  trades 
mentioned.  Computations  can  not  be  readily  made  of 
sufficient  completeness  to  show  the  advance  in  the  wages 
of  those  occupied  in  agriculture,  commerce  and  personal 
service,  but  the  same  upward  tendency  can  be  traced. 
All  arts  and  occupations  are  governed  by  the  same  law  of 
competition  under  which,  as  capital  increases,  it  also 
becomes  more  and  more  effective,  so  that  while  it  secures, 
decade  by  decade,  an  increasing  aggregate  profit,  the 
ratio  of  profit  to  the  product  is  diminished.  At  the  same 
time,  those  who  perform  the  manual  and  mechanical  work 
secure  to  their  own  use  and  enjoyment  an  increasing  pro- 
portion of  a  constantly  increasing  product,  while  their 
labor  is  diminished  both  in  hours  and  in  the  intensity  of 
effort. 

4  'Now,  sir, ' '  concluded  the  great  student  of  economical 
science,  turning  to  Senator  Jones,  "when  the  index  num- 
bers I  have  quoted  were  prepared  by  Mr.  Sauerbeck  and 
Prof.  Falconer,  both  of  them  scientists  and  neither  a  poli- 
tician, it  was  not  imagined  by  either  gentleman  that  they 


190  SOUND  MONEY. 

would  ever  be  put  to  the  use  to  which  I  have  put  them 
to-day. 

''You  have  said  that  you  are  willing  to  stand  or  fall 
by  your  statement,  that  prices  of  commodities  have  fallen 
in  a  demonstrable  ratio  with  silver. 

"What  are  the  facts? 

"That  silver,  as  compared  with  its  price  in  1860  has 
fallen  22.6  per  cent.  Wages  have  risen  58.9  per  cent, 
while  their  purchasing  power  has  increased  72.1  per  cent. 
All  prices  have  fallen  7.7  per  cent.  And  this  covers  the 
period  from  1860  to  1890,  seventeen  long  years  of  this 
time  having  been  spent  by  the  producers  of  the  white  metal 
crying  in  the  wilderness  and  refusing  comfort,  because 
their  product  was  not  freely  stamped  by  the  government 
with  the  lie  of  '  One  Dollar;  in  God  We  Trust '  on  every 
37r/i  grains  of  it! 

"In  short,  while  silver  has  fallen  22.6  per  cent  all  prices 
have  fallen  only  7.7  per  cent.  It  is  true  that  gold  has  ap- 
preciated as  compared  with  all  commodities,  except  labor,  7.7 
per  cent  and  if  you  compare  it  with  labor  it  has  not  appreci- 
ated at  all,  but  is  actually  cheaper  than  in  1860  after  ten 
years  of  the  most  terrific  gold  production  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

( '  On  the  other  hand  silver  has  decreased  15  per  cent  more 
than  all  other  commodities  combined. 

' '  Which,  then,  is  the  stable  metal  and  the  best  fitted  to  be 
our  standard  of  value? 

' '  To  what  position  does  this  bring  us?  That  the  poor 
debtor  for  whose  dear  sake  you  gentlemen  propose  to  trail  the 
honor  of  this  Nation  in  the  dirt  and  to  plunge  us  into  hope- 
less insolvency,  is  at  this  minute  paying  his  liabilities  in 
gold  of  less  value  than  if  he  had  paid  them  in  1860. 

"Therefore,  sir,  you  can  not  stand  on  the  statement 
you  advanced  in  your  challenge  to  me,  You  fall;  and 


SOUND  MONEY.  191 

with  you  falls  the  entire  free  coinage  theory  of  the  appre- 
ciation of  gold  and  its  assumed  effect  on  prices!" 

Tumultuous  applause  and  cheering  broke  out  the  mo- 
ment the  speaker  paused.  They  did  not  even  give  him 
time  to  thank  either  commission  or  audience  for  the  flat- 
teringly close  and  intelligent  attention  with  which  his  ad- 
dress had  been  received,  and  the  white  haired  political 
economist  could  only  bow  and  smile  his  thanks  while  re- 
ceiving the  congratulations  of  his  friends. 

The  points  he  had  made  were,  perhaps,  the  most  im- 
portant yet  for  the  farmer,  the  wage  worker  and  the  man 
of  fixed  income;  because  he  had  convincingly  shown 
what  they  already  knew  by  experience — that  under  the 
gold  standard  this  country  had  experienced  the  most  pros- 
perous period  of  its  existence,  and  that  it  was  only  the 
agitation  conducted  by  the  silver  party  which  had  brought 
this  splendid  prosperity  to  an  end  leaving  in  its  place  a 
legacy  of  panic,  distrust  and  commercial  paralysis. 

Ex-Mayor  Hopkins,  who  had  been  turning  over  the 
pages  of  Coin's  book,  now  arose  and  said: 

"Mr.  Chairman,  it  was  a  shrewd  play  of  the  Boston 
gent  to  lump  things  so  that  nobody  could  tell  what  he 
had  in  nor  what  he  left  out  in  his  prices  of  things.  I 
could  make  up  a  list  myself  that  would  knock  his  silly." 

1  'The  first  table  covered  all  prices,  not  a  few  selected 
articles;  and  the  wages  numbers  covered  all  wages,  not  a 
few  or  many  selected  occupations, ' '  replied  Mr.  Atkinson. 

"That's  all  right,  all  right,  to  hear  you  tell  it,"  per- 
sisted "Hop,"  as  the  "gang"  familiarly  call  him  since  he 
is  no  longer  "the  whole  thing"  at  the  City  Hall.  "Why 
don't  you  come  down  to  facts  like  this  man,  Coin,  see?" 
he  continued,  and  this  query  was  the  signal  for  a  shout  of 
laughter  at  which  his  ex-honor  grew  angry.  "Youse  gold 


192  SOUND  MONEY. 

bugs  can  laugh,"  he  declared,  "but  here's  this  fact — the 
poor  old  farmer  is  getting  the  worst  of  it  right  along. 
He's  getting  plumb  discouraged,  and  I  don't  blame  him, 
see?  Now  take  this  here  poor  old  jay  in  Coin's  book. 
Some  of  youse  gazabos  might  be  the  very  feller  that  tells 
him  that  a  bushel  of  wheat  will  buy  as  much  as  ever  it 
did,  so  he  goes  out  and  tries  it  and  makes  a  monkey  of 
himself,  see?  He  starts  for  the  depot  and  has  to  blow  in 
a  nickel  for  a  street  car  ride,  same  as  '73;  he  goes  up 
against  George  Pullman's  sleeping  car  cinch  and  finds 
himself  taxed  the  same  as  '73;  he  puts  up  at  a  first  class 
hotel  and  the  tariff  is  the  same  as  '73;  he  puts  a  message 
on  the  wire  to  the  old  lady  and  it  costs  the  same  as  '73. 
Then  he  gets  his  whiskers  pushed  off  and  the  barber  as- 
sesses him  the  same  as  '73,  and  off  he  starts  to  buy  tea 
and  coffee,  but  the  price  is  still  the  same  as  '73.  He 
only  got  50  cents  for  his  wheat  instead  of  a  dollar  as  in 
'73,  so  he  goes  home  to  borrow  money  at  his  bank  to 
square  himself  and  finds  interest  about  as  high  as  in  '73. 
I  tell  you,  Bo,  if  he  meets  the  mug  that  gave  him  that 
song  and  dance  about  what  his  wheat  would  buy  there'll 
be  a  scrap  in  a  holy  minute. ' ' 

This  eloquent  and  elegant  address  was  received  with 
much  applause  and  laughter  and  "hizzoner  the  ex."  sat 
down  with  the  sincere  conviction  that  he  had  settled  the 
entire  question,  off  hand. 

At  this  point  Commissioner  Rafferty  whispered  to  the 
chairman  and  the  latter  then  said: 

"If  Senator  P.  V.  Fitzpatrick  is  present  we  would  like 
to  hear  from  him." 

A  little  man  with  a  high  forehead  and  gray  hair  arose 
in  the  parquet  and,  .after  ascending  to  the  stage,  spoke, 
in  a  conversational  tone  as  follows: 


SOUND  MONL  Y.  193 

"Mr.  Chairman;  I  think  the  story  told  by  the  young 
gentleman  from  Kensington  is  full  of  errors.  He  and  his 
new  political  bedfellows  have  been  trying  to  prove,  all 
along,  that  prices  have  fallen  so  low  through  what  they 
call  'the  crime  of  '73'  that  we  need  an  unlimited  coinage 
of  50  per  cent  discount  silver  dollars  to  make  them  rise  up 
like  Willie  Riley." 

''That's  what!"  interjected  the  ex-mayor. 

'  'Then  why  have  you  changed  the  tune  so  suddenly 
in  trying  to  show  that  the  farmer  pays  just  the  same  as  in 
'73?' '  demanded  the  astute  little  statesman  with  provoking 
calmness,  and  the  audience  indulged  in  an  equally  pro- 
voking snicker.  "Jawn"  P.  saw  the  point  and  felt  it, 
too,  so  after  waiting  a  few  seconds  for  the  answer  that 
never  came  Senator  Fitzpatrick  continued:  "If  an  abun- 
dant volume  of  currency  will  raise  values  why  have  prices 
fallen  instead  of  advancing  since  1873  m  spite  of  the  fact 
that  we  have  double  the  currency  per  capita  now  that  we 
had  then?  Besides  that,  our  circulation  now  is  at  par  in- 
stead of  at  a  heavy  discount. ' ' 

Again  the  audience  applauded  the  very  pertinent  ques- 
tion which  Mr.  Hopkins  showed  no  inclination  to  answer. 
Perceiving  that  he  was  pursuing  a  popular  line  of  inquiry 
the  senator,  Hibernian  fashion,  continued  to  answer  the 
ex-mayor  by  still  asking  unanswerable  questions. 

"If  prices  have  fallen  because  of  a  scarcity  of  gold," 
he  continued,  "how  do  you  account  for  there  being  al- 
most as  much  gold  coin  in  this  country  now  as  there  was 
of  every  kind  of  money  in  1873?  How  comes  it  that  there 
is  more  gold  coin  in  the  whole  world  than  ever  before  and 
an  increase  since  1873  of  over  a  thousand  millions?  Why 
is  the  rent  of  money — interest — nearly  50  per  cent  lower 
than  in  1873?  With  twenty-three  times  as  much  gold,  as 


SOUND  MOtiSY. 

much  paper  money  and  337  millions  of  16  to  i  silver  dol- 
lars, when:  we  hadn't  a  single  dollar  in  1873,  why  have 
the  prices  of  wheat,  silver  and  cotton  declined  more  than 
50  per  cent? 

"Now  about  the  farmer,  the  honest  yeoman,  who  is 
the  real  backbone  of  this  Nation,  we  all  want  to  see  him 
prospering  because  unless  he  is  doing  well  the  whole 
country  is  hard  up.  The  amount  of  produce  he  raises  in 
excess  of  what  can  be  consumed  in  this  country  must  be 
sold  abroad  in  competition  with  the  surplus  products  of 
the  world  and  the  law  of  supply  ^nd  demand  fixes  the 
price  of  his  wheat,  cotton  and  other  crops.  If  wheat  sells 
at  50  cents  in  Liverpool,  under  free  coinage  he  will  get  a 
50-cent  dollar  for  it  here,  less  the  cost  of  freight,  etc.  He 
might  flatter  himself  that  he  was  back  to  'dollar  wheat' 
on  that  account;  but  as  he  buys  as  much  as  he  sells  he 
would  be  quickly  convinced  that  the  rise  in  prices  didn't 
act  quite  as  he  expected.  Everything  else  would  rise  pro- 
portionally and  his  silver  dollar  would  purchase  just  what 
50  cents  in  gold  does  now.  To  call  50  cents  worth  of  silver 
a  dollar  doesn't  make  it  the  purchasing  equivalent  of  a 
dollar  worth  100  cents  in  gold  any  more  than  to  call  a 
spool  of  thread  a  pound  of  butter  would  make  the  thread 
a  valuable  adjunct  to  the  supper  table." 

There  was  another  laugh  at  this  droll  illustration  and 
Senator  Fitzpatrick  continued:  "To  satisfy  myself  how 
deeply  I  have  been  wronged  by  this  horrible  crime  of  '73 
I  have  been  searching  the  Statistical  Abstract  for  1894.  In 
it  I  find  a  few  things  that  would  surprise  that  poor  old 
farmer  Mr.  Hopkins  was  telling  us  about.  For  instance, 
in  1873  the  average  cost  of  sending  a  telegram  was  62^ 
cents  on  which  the  companies,  not  then  monopolies,  made 
a  profit  of  i9TV  cents.  In  i8<)4  the  average  toll  was 


SOUND  MONEY,  195 

cents  and  the  'monopoly'  earned  a  profit  of  g-f$  cents. 
In  73  vou  could  only  telegraph  to  5,740  places.  In  '94 
there  were  21,166  offices  and  the  miles  of  wire  had  in- 
creased from  154,472  to  790,792. 

"Now  about  the  taxes  that  poor  old  farmer  found  'the 
same  as  '73.'  In  '73  each  of  us  contributed  to  the  gov- 
ernment $2.35  to  pay  interest.  In  '94  we  paid  37  cents. 
In  '  73  the  national  government  collected  from  us  for  all 
purposes  $8. 01 ;  in  '94  only  $4.36.  In '80  we  paid  an  as- 
sessment of  $1.98  on  every  $100.  In  '90  it  was  $1.83. 
For  state,  county  and  municipal  debt  we  each  paid  inter- 
est on  $22.40  in  '73,  in  '90  it  was  $18.13;  and  in  the  de- 
cade our  public  improvements  amounted  to  hundreds  of 
millions  of  dollars.  In  '73  each  individual  owed  $50. 52 
on  the  National  debt.  In  '94  only  $13. 17.  It  strikes  me 
that  the  farmer  who  told  that  story  about  his  taxes  to 
Mr.  Coin  was  like  the  boy  in  the  conundrum — he  lied." 

This  slap  was  greeted  with  another  roar  of  laughter, 
mingled  with  applause,  and  a  big,  husky  fellow  in  the 
first  balcony  said,  admiringly:  "That's  Fitzpathrick,  the 
bukeseller  and,  begorra,  he  ripresints  me  in  the  Shtate 
Sinit,  so  he  do,"  whereat  those  in  the  honest  fellow's  im- 
mediate neighborhood  indulged  in  another  little  smile  all 
their  own. 

"In  1870,"  continued  Mr.  Fitzpatrick,  "we  operated 
52,922  miles  of  railroad  and  in  '93  177,753  miles,  or  as 
much  as  the  mileage  of  all  the  rest  of  the  world  combined. 
And  here  are  two  points  for  the  farmer,  for  they  affect  in 
his  favor  the  price  of  the  things  he  sells — in  1874  it  cost 
lyf-jj-  cents  to  transport  i  ton  of  freight  i  mile  by  rail. 
In  1893  **  cost  -fa  of  a  cent!  In  1873  toll  had  to  be  paid 
on  every  bushel  of  grain  passing  through  the  Erie  Canal. 
To-day  the  toll  is  abolished. 


WAGES  AND  PRICES. 


Wages 
1890 

158.9 


Purchasing 

power  of 

wages 

1890 

172.1 


WEALTH  OF  NATIONS, 


FRANCE. 

$42   Billions. 


AUSTRIA 

$19 
Billions, 


ENGLAND, 

$47  Billions. 


UNITED  STATES. 
$65  Billions. 


GERMANY. 
$32  Billions. 


196  SOUND  MONE  K 

"In  1873  we  paid  237,513  teachers  in  out  public 
schools  $76,238,464.  In  1893  we  paid  383,010  teachers 
$162,794,148,  and  our  'infant' industries  continue  to  thrive 
under  a  gold  standard. 

"In  1873  we  issued  134,504  patents  and  received  as 
fees  $703,191.  In  1894  we  issued  511,744  patents  and 
received  as  fees  $1,187,439." 

"They  ought  to  have  been  issued  free!"  shouted  a 
long-haired  man  in  the  top  gallery. 

'  'He's  a  socialist — put  him  out, ' '  suggested  ' '  Jawn' '  P. 

"No,  I'm  not,"  retorted  the  man.  "I'm  an  inventor 
and  I'm  at  work  on  a  new  kind  of  wheels  for  free  coinage 
men's  heads  that  will  set  them  thinking  about  something 
cheaper  than  silver  for  money."  This  was  received  with 
a  roar  of  laughter,  in  which  even  "Jawn"  P.  joined  heartily. 

"In  '73  we  had  33,244  post  offices,"  continued  the 
Senator,  "and  in  '94  we  had  69,805." 

"I  wouldn't  do  a  thing  to  that  patronage  if  I  had  it," 
muttered  the  ex-mayor. 

"Our  post  routes  covered  256, 210  miles,"  resumed  the 
witness,  "and  in  '94  they  covered  454,746  miles.  In  '73 
we  only  contributed  70  cents  apiece  toward  the  support  of 
the  men  who  lost  their  health  while  fighting  the  battles 
of  the  Union,  or  the  widows  of  those  men.  In  '94  we  con- 
tributed $2.07  each  and  could  well  afford  it.  I  was  a 
Union  soldier  myself  and,  I  tell  you,  it  makes  me  vexed 
to  think  of  anybody  proposing  to  reduce  by  one-half  the 
value  of  the  140  millions  of  pension  money  upon  which  1 1 
millions  of  people  in  a  great  measure  depend. "  By  the 
way  the  audience  applauded  this  sentiment  it  might  well 
be  believed  that  this  was  also  their  view. 

"But  the  greatest  outrage  of  all  the  infamies  wrought 
by  the  crime  of  '73,"  continued  the  Senator,  "is  that, 


SOUND  MONEY.  197 

according  to  the  census  returns,  the  true  value  of  all  the 
property  in  the  United  States  in  1870  was  $30,068,518,000, 
while  in  1890  it  had  increased  to  $65,037,091,000.  Our 
population  had  increased  60  per  cent  and  our  property 
over  loo  per  cent.  Nothing  to  compare  with  this  shameful 
increase  of  material  wealth  in  twenty  years  was  ever  known 
before  in  all  the  history  of  the  world,  and  it  was  accomplished 
under  a  gold  standard  which,  to  be  consistent  with  Coin's 
theory,  should  only  have  produced  tramps,  suicides,  paupers, 
starving  workmen,  weeping  women  and  famished  child- 
ren!" 

After  the  cheering  which  followed  this  complete  refu- 
tation of  the  '  'calamity  howl' '  had  subsided,  the  statesman 
continued:  "I  am  a  loyal  American  and  a  true  Irishman. 
No  man  will  consult  his  own  interests  by  telling  rne  to  my 
face  that  I  am  a  friend  of  IJngland.  This  is  one  of  the  main 
reasons  why  I  am  opposed  to  free  silver,  for  Coin  tells  us 
that  the  gold  standard  will  give  England  the  commerce  and 
the  wealth  of  the  world.  In  the  same  breath  he  says  that 
the  silver  standard  will  make  the  United  States  the  most 
prosperous  Nation  on  earth.  Both  of  these  statements  can 
not  be  true,  as  anybody  except  an  omadhaun  can  see. 
We  know  what  the  gold  standard  has  already  done  for 
Hngland  and  for  this  country.  If  there  was  anything  to 
be  gained  by  adopting  silver,  England  would  have  grabbed  it 
long  ago.  But  she  is  too  crafty  a  trading  nation  for  that; 
and  with  the  gold  standard  she  will  certainly  seize  the  com- 
merce and  wealth  of  the  world  if  her  -most  dangerous  rival 
and  future  commercial  superior,  the  United  States,  can  be 
induced  to  play  directly  into  her  hands  by  returning  to  free 
coinage  and  a  silver  basis,  and  thus  reducing  her  civilization 
and  degrading  her  labor  along  with  her  money  to  the  leveh 
of  India  and  China!" 


193  SO  UND  MONE  Y. 

If  the  cheering,  which  began  when  the  Senator  bowed 
and  resumed  his  seat,  did  not  show  that  not  only  had  he 
been  a  brilliant  and  convincing  witness,  but  also  that  he 
was  the  most  popular  man  in  his  senatorial  district,  it 
showed  nothing.  As  Senator  Fitzpatrick  shook  hands 
with  Commissioner  Rafferty  and  received  his  congratula- 
tions a  tall,  stoop  shouldered  man,  with  grizzled  hair  and 
beard,  arose  in  the  front  row  of  the  balcony  and  said, 
"Mr.  Clench,  may  I  say  a  few  words?" 

"Certainly,"  replied  the  chairman. 

"Platform,  platform!"  cried  many  voices  in  the  audi- 
ence and  the  man  seemed  bewildered. 

"The  gentleman  is  requested  to  come  to  the  stage," 
added  the  chairman. 

In  a  few  minutes  the  tall  man,  who  walked  with  a 
slight  limp,  was  seen  approaching  the  commission  on  the 
stage  and,  after  a  few  whispered  words  with  him,  Chair- 
man Clench  turned  to  the  audience. 

"Fellow  citizens,"  said  he,  "permit  me  to  introduce  to 
you  Joshua  Williams,  farmer,  of  Lake  "County,  Illinois." 

There  was  a  slight  ripple  of  good-natured  applause,  and 
Williams  seemed  appalled  at  the  sea  of  faces.  However, 
he  hesitated  only  a  moment  and  then  without  any  useless 
preliminaries  spoke  in  homely,  homespun  fashion,  as  fol- 
lows: 

"I  have  been  interested  in  these  here  meetings,  and  I 
have  come  to  every  one  of  them.  I  think  they  are  doin' 
a  grand  work  in  educatin*  the  people !  You  young  men  do 
not  appreciate  theblessin's  you  have  under  the  old  Flag." 

"Yes,  we  appreciate  the  blessing  of  hard  times,"  cried 
a  free-silverite  in  the  balcony. 

"Hard  times?"  repeated  the  old  man,  "why,  sonny, 
you  don't  know  what  hard  times  be!  Back  in  the  fifties, 


SOU. YD  MONEY.  199 

before  Abe  Lincoln  was  elected,  we  had  hard  times  as 
was  hard.  Many's  the  hard  day's  work  I  did  for  fifty 
cents,  and  glad  to  get  it,  too.  And  you  young  fellers 
don't  know  anything  about  wild-cat  and  red-dog  money, 
or  you  wouldn't  be  makin'  so  much  fuss  against  good 
gold  coin. 

"But,  Mister  Clench,  though  we  didn't  have  a  very 
prosperous  country,  we  all  loved  it,  sir,  and  when  good 
old  Abe  called  us  I  shouldered  a  musket  and  fit  four  long 
yearn  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union. ' '  Here  the  ap- 
plause began.  "That's  why  I  walk  with  a  limp, ' '  he  con- 
tinued, "and  I  don't  draw  any  pension,  either."  This 
statement  literally  brought  down  the  house. 

"And  I  hear  you  talk  about  panics  as  if  there  were 
never  any  panics  before,"  he  went  on.  "Why,  don't  you 
know  that  all  countries)  in  all  ages,  whether  they  have  gold 
money  or  silver,  have  panics  and  hard  times  about  every 
generation?  It's  the  way  things  be.  Sir,  progress  and 
prosperity  comes  in  waves.  Just  now  we  are  gettin'  ready 
for  another  rush  forward.  [Applause]. 

"But,  Mister  Clench,  I  came  here  to  tell  you  some  of 
my  own  experiences  with  prices.  I  have  heard  this 
young  fellow,  Mr.  Hopkins,  talk  about  the  poor  farmer. 
He  says-,  says  he,  that  the  farmer  only  gets  fifty  cents  for 
his  wheat  now  and  he  got  one  dollar  in  1873.  That's 
so.0 

"You  bet  it's  so!"  interjected  "Hop." 

"He  says  that  the  farmer  pays  as  much  for  ridin'  in 
Pullman  sleepers  as  he  paid  in  1873.  P'raps  so.  I  don't 
ride  in  'em,  and  I  don't  know  any  other  farmer  'at  does. 
Most  of  their  ridin'  is  on  the  plow  or  reaper. 

"This  Mr.  Hopkins  says,  says  he,  that  the  farmer 
pays  as  much  for  tea  and  coffee  as  in  1873.  No  he  don't! 


200  SO  UNO  MONE  V. 

Not  by  a  good  deal,  and  he  knows  it!     He's  a  grocery- 
man  himself,  they  tell  me. ' ' 

Williams  brought  his  fist  down  so  hard  on  the  table 
that  John  Patrick  shrank  back. 

"Now,  I  want  to  tell  all  you  men  that  wheat  isn't  the 
only  thing  a  farmer  raises,"  he  continued.  "At  least  it's 
a  mighty  poor  farmer  as  raises  only  wheat.  A  dry  goods 
man  might  as  well  sell  only  calico!  Down  in  my  county 
we  raise  wheat  and  corn  and  oats,  and  hogs  and  cattle  and 
chickens,  and  lots  of  other  things.  And  let  me  say  right 
here  that  as  much  money  is  paid  for  poultry  and  eggs 
every  year  as  is  paid  for  wheat.  That's  a  fact,  though  it 
seems  queer,  don't  it? 

"Now  in  April,  1873,  I  wanted  lots  of  things  for  my 
family  and  I  marketed  a  big  pile  of  grain  and  live  stock. 
Here  is  the  list. ' '  He  pulled  from  his  pocket  a  slip  of 
paper,  from  which  he  read  very  slowly  and  deliberately 
the  following  list  which  Commissioner  Hobbs  rapidly 
transferred  to  the  blackboard: 

50  bushels  wheat @  $1.17,  $  58.50. 

160       "       corn @      .31,  49.60. 

65       "      oats @  .24}*,  15.93. 

4  hogs  (1,000  Ibs.)  •  >@     .05^,  52.00. 

3  cattle  (3,750  lbs.)..@  .05^,  206.25. 

30  bushels  potatoes . . .  @       .60,  18.00. 

$400.28. 

"Now,  Mr.  Clench,  this  all  makes  $400.28,"  he  con- 
tinued. "I  took  the  money  and  bought  things  for  my 
family.  Maria  wanted  a  silk  dress,  Sally  wanted  a  calico 
dress  and  an  organ — Sally's  my  daughter.  She's  married 
now  to  Bill  Smith's  oldest  boy.  Maria,  she  said  she 
wanted  me  to  buy  some  muslin  and  drillin' ,  and  ingrain 


SO  UND  MONE  Y.  201 

carpet  and  furniture  for  the  spare  bedroom,  and  a  Bible, 
and  some  milk-pans  and  a  suit  of  clothes  for  Johnny — 
Johnny's  a  lawyer  now,  over  to  Galesburg — and  another 
for  me,  and  a  porcelain-lined  kettle.  And  I  wanted  a 
reaper  and  some  nails,  and  tea,  coffee,  and  sugar.  Here's 
what  I  paid  for  them. "  As  he  read  off  the  list  Commis- 
sioner Hobbs  put  it,  also,  on  the  blackboard. 
*io  yards  black  gros  gram  silk. . .  @  $1.00,  $10.00 

10  yards  calico @  -n^,  1.15 

40  yards  unbleached  muslin @-i5^6,  6.25 

10  yards  drilling @  .15,  1.50 

25  yards  ingrain  carpet @  $i-35>         33-75 

i  set  of  bed  room  furniture 50.00 

i  suit  clothes 25.00 

i  suit  clothes 15.00 

i  dozen  milk  pans. 2.50 

i  4-quart  porcelain-lined  kettle .60 

i  reaper 170.00 

i  organ 60.00 

i  family  Bible 9.00 

21  postage  stamps @  .03,  .63 

50  Ibs.  nails 2.25 

10  Ibs.  coffee @  .24,  2.40 

5  Ibs.  tea @  . 80,  4.00 

50  Ibs.  sugar @.i2^,  6.25 

Total $400.28 

"You  see  that  just  took  all  my  money.  Now  when  I 
heard  that  Mr.  Coin  had  writ  somewhere  that  the  farmer 
is  havin'  a  hard  time,  gettin'  only  half  as  much  as  in  '73 
for  his  prodoos  and  payin'  just  as  much,  I  thought  I 
would  see  just  how  much  the  grain  and  live  stock  I  sold 


*  Actual  wholesale  prices  in  Chicago. 


202  SOUND  MONEY. 

in  '  73  would  bring  this  very  week,  and  how  much  could 
be  bought  with  the  money.  So  this  mornin'  I  looked  up 
the  prices.  Here's  what  my  prodoos  would  bring  now: 

50  bushels  wheat @  .63, 

160  bushels  corn @  .48, 

65  bushels  oats @  28^, 

4  hogs  (1,000  Ibs.) @  .05, 

3  cattle  (3,750  Ibs.) @  .05^, 

30  bushels  potatoes @  .68, 

Total $403.48 

''Where  did  you  get  those  prices?"  demanded  the 
ex- May  or. 

'  'Got  them  out  of  the  Chicago  papers'  market  reports, ' ' 
replied  the  old  fellow  and  his  ex-honor  sank  back  with  an 
air  of  vexation. 

Commissioner  Rafferty  here  whispered  to  a  boy  sitting 
near  him  and  gave  him  a  small  coin.  The  boy  vanished. 

"Now,  you  see,  Mister  Clench,  that  I  got  more  this 
year  than  in  '73.  The  poor  farmer  isn't  so  very  bad  off, 
is  he?' '  The  query  was  greeted  with  applause  and  laugh- 
ter and  "Hop."  again  interrupted. 

"Why  do  you  take  such  uneven  quantities  of  grain?" 
he  asked.  "Why  don't  you  take  more  wheat,  the  most 
important  grain,  than  the  other  two?" 

"Because,  sir,  those  were  the  quantities  I  raised.  Be- 
sides, the  crops  of  these  three  grains  have  about  the  same 
proportions  in  the  whole  country.  I  don't  know  the  exact 
figgers.  Maybe  Mister  Stone  can  tell  us. ' ' 

Chairman  Clench  here  asked  Secretary  Stone  whether 
he  could  give  the  average  crops  of  wheat,  corn  and  oats  in 
the  United  States  during  the  last  five  years. 

"lean,"  replied  Mr.   Stone,  "in  one  minute."     He 


SOUND  MONEY.  203 

rapidly  made  a  few  figures  on  the  open  pages  of  the* book 
he  held  and  then  said: 

"The  department    of  agriculture  gives  the  average 
crops  during  the  last  five  years  as  follows: 
" Wheat,  476  million  bushels. 
'  'Oats,  644  million  bushels. 
"Corn,  1602  million  bushels. 

'  'In  comparing  prices  on  a  basis  of  160  bushels  of  corn, 
50  of  wheat  and  65  of  oats,  the  gentleman  certainly  gave 
wheat  all  the  prominence  it  deserved. ' ' 

"Thank  ye,  sir,"  said  Farmer  Williams.  "Then  I 
went  around  to  the  stores  to  see  what  I  could  buy  the 
same  articles  for  that  I  bought  in  1873,"  he  resumed.  "I 
have  here  a  list  of  the  present  prices: 

10  yards  black  gros  grain  silk.@       .50,          $     5.00 

10  calico @   .04^,  .45 

40     "      unbleached  muslin ...  @  .05^,  2.20 

10     "      drilling. @  .05^,  .55 

25  ingrain  carpet @  .42^,  10.62 

set  bed-room  furniture 25.00 

suit  of  clothes 15.00 

"    "      " 10.00 

doz.  milk  pans .- .60 

4-qt.  porcelain-lined  kettle .18 

organ 30.00 

reaper 70.00 

family  Bible 5.00 

21  postage  stamps @     .02,  .42 

50  Ibs.  nails. .73 

10  "    coffee @     .18,  i. 80 

5     "    tea @     .40,  2.00 

50  "    sugar @     .05,  2.50 

Wholesale  prices  in  Chicago.  $  1 8  2 . 05 


204  SOUND  MONEY. 

• 
"You  see,  I  could  have  bought  the  same  articles  and 

taken  home  with  me  $121.43  to  Put  in  the  bank  or  pay  off 
a  mortgage,  if  I  had  one — but  I  haven't!" 

The  applause  which  followed  this  striking  confirmation 
of  Mr.  Atkinson's  bulk  figures  was  loud  and  prolonged, 
after  which  Mr.  Hobbs  inquired,  whether  eggs  and  milk 
differed  in  price. 

"About  the  same  as  in  '73,"  said  Farmer  Williams. 
"We've  got  some  pretty  smart  men  nowadays — there's 
Edison,  for  instance — but  no  one  has  ever  invented  a 
machine  which  will  give  milk  or  lay  eggs!"  Daughter 
and  continued  applause  greeted  this  humorous  sally. 

"It's  machinery  as  has  put  down  the  price  of  goods, 
not  gold,"  concluded  Farmer  Williams,  who  had  "caught" 
the  audience.  His  testimony,  giving  the  actual  facts 
which  had  come  under  his  own  observation,  was  far  more 
convincing  than  yards  of  statistics  or  days  of  argument. 
During  the  last  few  minutes  Commissioner  Rafferty  had 
been  looking  over  several  newspapers,  which  the  boy  had 
brought  him.  He  finally  whispered  to  Chairman  Clench 
and  the  latter  then  announced  that  Commissioner  Rafferty 
would  make  a  brief  statement,  after  which  the  meeting 
would  stand  adjourned. 

Rafferty  arose  and  said,  "I  wish  to  say  that  I  have 
examined  the  newspapers  and  find  that  the  prices  given 
by  Mr.  Williams  are  the  actual  prices  quoted  in  yester- 
day's market.*  I  propose,  gentlemen,  that  we  give  three 
cheers  for  Farmer  Williams,  a  true  patriot,  an  honest  man, 

*  These  prices  were  taken  from  the  Inter  Ocean  of  April  29,  ^805.  Since  that 
time  the  heavy  advances  in  wheat  and  other  cereals  not  only  strengthen  the  argu- 
ment here  made, — that  the  farmer  is  vastly  better  off  under  a  gold  standard,  but 
also  corroborate  the  position  that  shortness  of  supply  or  increase  of  demand  alone 
raise  the  prices  of  commodities  which  are  forced  to  compete  in  the  markets  of  the 
world.  The  price  of  silver  has  not  risen,  and  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  price 
of  wheat. 


SOUND  MONEY.  205 

and  a  representative  of  the  real  back-bone  of  our  beloved 
country. ' ' 

The  audience  arose  in  a  body,  and  never  were  cheers 
given  more  lustily  or  with  greater  spirit. 

A  half  dozen  of  brawny  fellows  rushed  on  the  stage, 
put  Farmer  Williams  on  their  shoulders,  and  marched 
with  him  triumphantly  up  the  aisle  and  then  out  into  the 
street,  amid  the  repeated  cheers  of  the  people. 

The  simple  minded  old  man,  whose  honesty  shone  out 
of  his  keen  grey  eyes,  had  put  the  finishing  touch  to  the 
elaborate  arguments  of  learned  men,  and  carried  convic- 
tion to  every  mind  which  doubted  or  mistrusted  that  the 
figures  quoted  might  have  been  false  or  erroneous. 

Farmer  Williams  was- the  hero  of  the  hour. 


206  SOUND  MONEY. 


CHARTER  VI. 

BRINGING  IN  THE  VERDICT. 

For  a  full  week  after  the  exciting  events  which 
occurred  at  the  great  Auditorium  meeting  Labor's  Commis- 
sion on  Coinage  devoted  itself  exclusively  to  a  thorough 
discussion  of  the  stenographic  report  of  its  own  proceed- 
ings. 

Every  argument  advanced  by  the  witnesses  on  either 
side  was  carefully  considered  and  voted  on.  To  further 
aid  the  three  commissioners  in  the  formulation  of  their 
report  they  had  procured,  in  additipn  to  the  books  and 
papers  already  offered  in  evidence,  copies  of  the  Congres- 
sional Globe,  various  public  documents,  Mulhall's  '  'Dic- 
tionary of  Statistics,"  "Coin's  Financial  School,"  and 
other  works  which  would  aid  them  in  verifying  the 
statistics  quoted  and  justly  estimating  the  worth  of  the 
statements  made  orally  before  them. 

At  length  the  meeting  night  of  the  Federated  Trades 
Unions  came  around  and  the  little  hall  in  the  Industrial 
World  building  was  again  jammed  almost  to  suffocation. 
When  the  eagerly  expected  order  of  business  was  arrived 
at,  'Reports  of  committees,  if  any,'  Chairman  Clench 
arose  and  said  that  the  Commission  on  Coinage  was  ready. 
He  f.urther  stated  that  Mr.  Rafferty  had  been  elected 
secretary  and  asked  that  the  usual  course  be  waived  and 
that  the  secretary  of  the  Commission  be  allowed  to  read 
the  report.  The  request  was  unanimously  approved  and 
thereupon  Commissioner  Rafferty  mounted  the  platform 
and  read  as  follows: 


SOUND  MONEY.  207 

"The  Commission  to  inquire  into  the  feasibility  of  this 
Nation  freely  coining  silver  at  a  ratio  of  16  to  i  and  the 
effects  of  such  a  course  on  wages  and  prices  appointed  by 
your  honorable  body  April  22,  1895,  reports  as  follows: 

'  "The  inquiry  partook  of  the  nature  of  a  running  de- 
bate in  which  Harvey  Coin,  Senator  Jones,  of  Nevada, 
and  ex-Mayor  Hopkins,  of  Chicago,  sustained  the  free 
silver  side  and  Clinton  B.  Evans,  Adlai  T.  Kwing,  Presi- 
dent Baker  and  Secretary  Stone,  of  the  Board  of  Trade, 
Edward  Atkinson,  of  Boston,  Colonel  Forrest,  of  the 
Daily  News,  Richard  W.  Knott,  of  the  Louisville  Evening 
Post,  Edward  Pardridge,  Professor  L,aughlin,  Robert  L. 
McCabe,  Sigmund  Zeisler,  Jacob  W.  Richards,  State  Sena- 
tor Fitzpatrick,  Reuben  Haye  and  Joshua  Williams  op- 
posed the  proposition. 

'  'The  first  matter  of  importance  in  the  evidence  we 
noted  was  that  every  principal  argument  advanced  by  the 
advocates  of  free  coinage  was  based  on  statistics — the 
same  statistics  as  are  to  be  found  quoted  in  'Coin's  Finan- 
cial School.'  These  figures,  credited  by  Mr.  Coin  to 
'Mulhall's  Dictionary  of  Statistics,'  the  'Statistical 
Abstract  of  the  United  States'  and  the  'Treasury  Report' 
for  1 894  were  proven  to  be  falsified  and  forged  in  every 
instance. 

'  'We  respectfully  refer  you  to  the  evidence  of  Messrs. 
Evans,  Baker,  Stone  and  Knott  and  to  the  authorities 
themselves. 

"This  fact  disposes  of  all  the  theories  of  free  silver 
coinage  so  far  as  they  are  based  upon  alleged  statistics  but 
we  have  thought  it  proper  to  take  up  the  allegations  of 
Mr.  Coin  one  by  one  and  state  our  conclusions  based  on 
the  result  of  our  investigation. 

"It  is  alleged  that  silver  is  the  money  of  the  constitu- 


£0$  SOUND  MONEY. 

tion  and  that  371^  grains  of  it  was  constituted  the  unit 
of  value.  From  the  irrefutable  evidence  of  Mr.  Ewing, 
supported  by  the  earliest  records  of  Congress,  we  find  that 
one  dollar,  in  the  abstract,  was  constituted  our  unit  of 
value;  that  the  metal  in  which  it  was  first  expressed  was 
copper;  that  gold,  silver,  copper  and  paper  are  equally 
the  money  of  the  constitution,  and  that  any  other  money 
material  may  be  added  by  Congress  at  any  time. 

"It  is  alleged  that  we  are  in  the  clutches  of  the  'Brit- 
ish Octopus'  and  that  England  draws  annually  from  us 
200  millions  in  gold.  From  the  evidence  of  Messrs. 
Evans,  Fitzpatrick,  Knott,  McCabe  and  others  we  find 
that  this  statement  is  absolutely  without  foundation  in  fact. 
89  millions  in  gold  was  the  largest  net  export  from  this 
country  in  any  year,  while  the  net  exports  of  gold  to  Eng- 
land during  twenty  years  averaged  less  than  $6,000,000 
annually. 

"It  is  alleged  that  the  fall  in  prices  has  been  caused 
by  an  appreciation  in  the  value  of  gold  under  the  gold 
standard.  From  the  evidence  of  Messrs.  Atkinson, 
Evans,  Fitzpatrick,  Pardridge,  Knott,  Forrest,  Williams, 
Haye  and  McCabe  we  are  convinced  that  improved  machin- 
ery, better  methods  of  transportation,  greater  competition,  in- 
creased supply  and  greater  general  economy  have  caused  the 
reduction,  which  has  been  entirely  to  the  benefit  of  the  farmer , 
wage  earner  and  man  of  fixed  salary  or  income. 

"It  is  alleged  that  the  gold  standard  has  caused  hard 
times,  destitution  and  loss  of  employment  to  workingmen, 
decreased  values  to  farmers;  and  created  tramps,  suicides, 
and  millionaires.  From  the  evidence  presented  by  the 
above  named  gentlemen  and  our  own  experience  we  find 
-that  the  hours  of  labor  have  been  shortened,  the  wages  of 
labor  have  been  largely  increased  and,  owing  to  the  fall  in 


SOUND  MONEY.  209 

prices  of  manufactured  articles,  the  purchasing  power  of 
wages  has  almost  doubled. 

It  is  alleged  that  the  value  of  gold  has  appreciated. 
The  evidence  of  Messrs.  Atkinson,  Evans,  Forrest, 
Williams,  Fitzpatrick,  Knott  and  others,  convinces  us  that 
as  gold  measures  the  value  of  commodities ,  wages  and  lands 
so  wages,  lands  and  commodities  measure  the  value  of  gold. 
Commodities  have  fallen  8  per  cent,  wages  have  increased 
58  per  cent  and  lands  have  increased  90  per  cent  in  value, 
while  our  population  has  increased  61  per  cent. 

'  (It  is  alleged  that  under  the  gold  standard  we  have 
entered  upon  a  season  of  national  decay,  which  will 
shortly  deliver  our  commerce  into  the  hands  of  England. 
We  find  from  the  evidence  presented  by  Messrs.  Fitz- 
patrick, Evans,  Knott  and  others,  that  in  twenty  years 
our  population  increased  60  per  cent,  and  our  material 
wealth  over  100  per  cent.  Furthermore,  that  England  is 
our  most  profitable  customer,  buying  from  us  as  much 
as  all  the  rest  of  the  world  put  together  and  selling  us 
only  one-fifth  as  much  as  we  buy  from  the  rest  of  the 
world. 

"It  is  alleged  that  we  have  not  sufficient  volume  of 
currency  and  that  only  the  free  coinage  of  silver  will  sup- 
ply us  with  enough.  From  the  evidence  of  Messrs.  For- 
rest, Fitzpatrick,  Evans  and  Knott,  we  are  convinced  that 
we  have  more  than  sufficient  money  to  conduct  our  business, 
more  than  any  of  the  other  great  nations,  excepting  France, 
which  country  is  by  no  means  the  most  prosperous.  We  could 
not  use  more  money  even  if  we  had  it. 

"  It  is  alleged  that  there  is  not  sufficient  gold  in  the 
world  for  money  purposes.  From  the  evidence  of  Messrs. 
Evans,  Knott,  Forrest,  Fitzpatrick  and  McCabe,  we  are 
convinced  that  there  is  no  scarcity  of  gold,  and  that  the 


210  SOUND  MONEY. 

annual  production  of  the  metal  is  fully  adequate  to  the 
world's  needs. 

'  'It  is  alleged  that  there  is  no  over-production  of  silver. 
From  the  overwhelming  evidence  of  all  the  witnesses, 
even  from  the  arguments  of  Mr.  Coin  himself,  this  is  mani- 
festly untrue.  The  decline  in  the  value  of  silver,  and  its 
consequent  loss  of  prestige  as  a  money  metal,  has  not  been 
caused  by  its  demonetization,  but  its  demonetization  has  been 
caused  by  its  over-supply  and  the  increased  production  of 
gold  which,  because  it  contains  more  value  in  less  bulk,  is 
preferred  for  coin  by  all  civilized  nations.  ' 

"It  is  alleged  that  through  the  so-called  demonetization 
of  silver  by  this  and  other  countries,  1871-1874,  the  price 
of  silver  has  fallen,  and  that  remonetization  would  restore 
its  value.  Mulhall's  statistics  show  that  in  1873  the 
world's  silver  coinage  amounted  to  2,500  million  dollars. 
By  1890  it  had  increased  to  3, 100  millions,  and  the  Direc- 
tor of  the  Mint  shows  by  exact  figures  that  1891-1893, 
inclusive,  added  $429,201,000  to  this  stock.  Therefore, 
since  demonetization  in  1873,  the  world  has  coined  far  more 
than  i ,000  millions  in  silver,  or  25  per  cent  more  in  the  20 
years  following  demonetization  than  in  the  32  years  pre- 
ceding that  act. 

"It  is  alleged  that  it  would  be  right  and  proper  to 
allow  all  debtors  to  scale  their  debts  50  per  cent,  because 
the  price  of  silver  has  fallen  to  that  extent.  This  course 
is  further  justified  by  the  statement  that  the  debts  of  this 
Nation  are  owed  to  English  capitalists  and  American 
millionaires.  From  the  unanswerable  testimony  of  Sig- 
mund  Zeisler,  Col.  Knott,  Col.  Forrest,  Clinton  B.  Evans 
and  others,  we  are  convinced  that  this  is  not  even  approxi- 
mately true.  A  vast  proportion  of  the  mortgage  and  other 
debts  are  owed  to  our  own  people  in  humble  or  moderate  cir- 


SOUND  MONEY.  211 

tumstances •.  We  are  the  richest  nation  on  earth  and  our 
own  chief  creditor. 

We  believe  that  the  success  of  the  free  coinage  party 
at  the  polls  would  be  the  starting  point  of  the  most  terri- 
ble financial  panic  ever  known;  that  creditors  would  im- 
mediately demand  their  money  in  gold,  to  prevent  loss  by 
impending  legislation;  that  bank  doors  would  be  stormed 
by  depositors  demanding  gold;  that  trade  and  industry 
would  be  paralyzed,  labor  thrown  out  of  employment  and 
prices  rushed  up,  simultaneously,  100  per  cent.  It  would 
mean  commercial  chaos  and  such  national  vwant  and  suffer- 
ing as  our  people  have  never  yet  endured. 

"Since  the  demonetization  of  silver,  so-called,  we 
have  had  the  greatest  prosperity  we,  as  a  Nation,  have 
ever  enjoyed.  Our  progress  in  education,  wealth  and 
civilization  have  been  unprecedented.  The  condition  of 
the  toiling  masses  has  been  vastly  improved  and  that  im- 
provement continued  up  to  the  very  moment  that  fear  of 
a  silver  basis  frightened  capital,  home  and  foreign,  out  of 
the  channels  of  our  prosperity. 

"For  these  and  further  reasons,  which  can  only  be 
fully  appreciated  by  a  perusal  of  the  evidence  submitted 
before  this  commission,  we  are  unanimously  convinced, 
and  desire  to  speak  with  all  the  emphasis  of  which  we  are 
capable,  that  for  this  country  to  attempt  single-handed 
the  free  and  unlimited  coinage  of  silver  at  a  ratio  of  1 6  to 
i,  while  we  are  only  able  to  circulate  100  millions  of  sil- 
ver dollars  out  of  the  500  millions  we  have  in  stock;  while 
we  have  uncoined  silver  bullion  lying  in  the  treasury  suf- 
ficient to  coin  200  millions  more;  while  silver  is  being  pro- 
duced at  the  rate  of  200  millions  annually,  which  produc- 
tion could  easily  be  increased  to  400  millions  within  two 
years;  and  while  there  is  in  the  world  a  stock  of  uncoined 


212  SOUND  MON&V. 

silver  bullion  sufficient  to  mint  over  3,000  millions  of  16  to  f 
dollars,  would  be  an  act  of  national  folly  unprecedented  in 
the  history  of  the  world! 

"What  of  the  countries  which  have  clung  to  the  silver 
basis?  What  of  the  South  American  republics,  Mexico, 
India  and  China?  What  is  the  condition  of  their  labor 
to-day?  What  of  their  farmers?  How  does  the  condition 
of  the  masses  of  their  people  compare  with  the  condition 
of  the  masses  of  ours?  Is  their  labor  on  a  social  level 
with  the  labor  of  the  United  States? 

"Do  we  know  aught  of  the  cheap  labor  of  India,  China 
and  other  Asiatic  nations  except  to  insist  upon  such  legis- 
lation as  will  prevent  it  entering  this  country  to  compete  with 
the  toiling  sovereigns  of  the  American  people? 

'  'It  is  to  this  degredation  that  we  are  invited  by  the  ad- 
vocates of  free  silver.  Labor  content  to  exist  upon  a  wage 
of  twelve  to  twenty  cents  a  day  as  in  Mexico,  or  eight  to 
twelve  cents  a  day  as  in  India  and  China!  Farmers  happy 
if,  by  toiling  in  the  fields  with  wives  and  children  from  sun- 
rise to  sunset,  they  can  insure  to  their  families  sufficient  oj 
the  cheapest  grade  of  cotton  cloth  to  cover  their  nakedness 
and  a  diet  of  rice,  roots  and  rats! 

"All  of  which  is  respectfully  submitted: 

MARTIN  CLENCH,  Chairman. 

JAMES  HOBBS. 

MICHEL  RAFFERTY,  Secretary. 

Such  a  storm  of  cheering  as  was  never  before  heard 
within  those  walls  broke  forth  upon  the  conclusion  of  the 
report,  and  continued  for  several  minutes.  The  report 
was  then  adopted  without  a  dissenting  voice  and  together 
with  the  full  proceedings  of  the  commission  was  ordered 
printed  for  the  information  of  the  working  men,  farmers 
and  business  men  of  the  country. 


PROGRESS    UNDER     TWO    MONETARY    STANDARDS. 


INDEX. 


Act  of  1 785,        .......          36 

Act  of  1786,  ......  39 

Act  of  1792,        .......          43 

Act  of  1834,  ......  86 

Act  of  1853,        .  .  .  .  .  .  .    87,  90 

Act  of  1873,       - 124,  125,  126 

Act  of  1890,        .......        114 

Act  of  1893,  ......  114 

Atkinson,  Edward,  testimony  of,        .  .  .  127,  175 

Baker,  W.  T.,  testimony  of,  ....  171 

Banks,  a  blessing,  .  .  .  .  .  .128 

Bank  Checks,  enormous  use  of,  .  .  .  144 

Banks  not  owned  in  Wall  street,  ....         134 

Banks,  national,  by  whom  owned,  etc.,  .  .       134,  135 

Banks,  savings,  how  managed,  etc.,    .  .  .  134,  135 

Bankers,  what  they  do  not  want,  .  .  .  110 

Bimetallism,        .......         107 

Bimetallism,  International,  ....  133 

Bimetallic  standard  established,  ....          39 

Bond  sales,   .......       121,  122 

Bullion,  amount  of,  at  various  periods,  ...          76 

Cavalry  horse  illustration  exposed,  .  .  .  113 

Capital,  eager  to  invest,  .  .  .  .  122,  130 

Census  returns  falsified,      ....  152,  153,  154 

Circulation  of  silver,      .  ...  .  .  .62 

Circulation,  increased,  effect  of,     .  .  .  .  Ill 

Cloths  and  clothing,  decline  in  price  of,  .  .         186 

Coin  and  his  employers,      .  .  .  .  .26,  117 

Coin  convicted  of  lying,      66,  79,  84,  93,  97,  115,  119,  120,  141,  146, 

148,  152,  154,  161,  165,  166, 167,  193,  194,  195 

Coin's  "estimates"        .  ...  95,  152 

Coin  expelled  from  decent  society,  .  .  .  170 

Coin  forges  and  falsifies  figures,        49,  67,  78,  79,  145,  146,  147,  148 
Coin's  gold  and  silver  cubes,          .  .  .95,  145,  146,  147 

Coin  publicly  disgraced,  .....         168 

Coin  repudiates  government  records,        .  .  .  132 

Coin,  stump  speech  by,  .....  9 


214  INDEX. 

Coinage  act  of  1792,  .  .  .  .  37 

Coinage  act  of  1853,       ......  90 

Coinage  at  various  periods,  ....  76 

Coinage  of  gold  and  silver  compared,  ...  80 

Coinage  of  U.  S.  since  1793,       '    .  .  .  .  91,  92 

Coinage  of  U.  S.  under  Sherman  act,  .  .  .          114 

Coinage  of  Mexico,  .....  Ill 

Commission  on  Coinage  appointed,    .  .  .  .  14 

Commission  on  Coinage,  First  day's  proceedings,  .  30 

Commission  on  Coinage,  Second  day,  ...  47 

Commission  on  Coinage,  Third  day,        ...  68 

Commission  on  Coinage,  Fourth  day,  .  .  .         106 

Commission  on  Coinage,  Fifth  day,          .  .  .  156 

Commission  on  Coinage,  Report  of,    .  .  .  .        206 

Commerce  of  the  U.  S.  .  .  .  .       139,  140 

Commerce  with  England,         ....  120,  140 

Commerce  of  four  leading  nations,  .  .  .  142 

Commercial  ratio,  how  maintained,    .  .  .      73,  80 

Confidence,  public,  restored,      ....  13,  131 

Congress  of  Confederation,  ....  38 

Conspiracy  of  Capital,  .  .  .  .  70,  116,  117 

Copper,  made  money  metal,  .  .  .  .          39,  40 

Crops,  average  cereal  1890-1895,  .  .  .  .203 

Creditors  of  the  Nation,  ....       137,  138 

Crime  of  1873,  .  .  .  .49,  51,  88,  116,  124,  125,  126 

Currency,  at  various  periods,          ....       143,  144 

Currency  kept  at  par,    .  .  .  .  .  121 

Currency,  too  much,  ....  143,  144 

Currency,  green  back,  .....  129,   130 

Currency,  expansion  of,      .  .  .  .  .       143,  144 

Currency  of  four  leading  nations,       .  .  .         142 

Currency,  a  safe,      .  .  .  .  .  .  112 

"Daddy"  dollars,  ......  51 

Debts  of  the  Nation,  ....          137,  152,   154 

Debts  of  the  world,         .  .  .  .  .95 

Debts,  scaling  of,     .  ....  190 

Decimal  system  established,     .....          37 

Demonetization  of  silver,  .  .  56,  58,  59,  69,  85 

Dollar,  Mexican,  value  of  .  .  .  .111 

Education,  statistics  of  since  1873,  .  .  .  196 

Effect  of  bank  checks,  etc.,      .....         144 

England,  American  investments  of,  .  .  138 

England— annual  interest  in  gold,      .  117,  118,  119,  120,  138,   139 

England,  commercial  supremacy  of,  .  .  197 

England,  money  of,       . 

England,  trade  of,    . 

England,  war  with,        ......        140 

Evans,  C.  B.,  testimony  of,  .  .          49,  69,  85,  139,  167 

Ewing,  Adlai  T.,  testimony  of,  ....    35,  89 


INDEX.  215 

Exchanges,  how  effected  by  money,         .  .  .  103 

Fitzpatrick,  Senator  P.  V.,  testimony  of,  .  .         192 

Foreign  trade  of  U.  S.,        .....      139,  140 

Forrest,  Col.,  testimony  of,      .  .  .  .      86,  102,  141 

France,  condition  of,  .  .  .  .  .  104 

Free  coinage,  of  copper,  .....   40,  41 

Free  coinage  of  silver,  confiscation  under,  102,  136,  137,  173 

Free  coinage  of  silver,  wages  under,          .  .  .  179 

Free  coinage  of  silver,  effects  of,         .  60,  136,  140,  173,   194 

Free  coinage  of  silver,  effect  on  commercial  ratio,  .  80 

Free  coinage  of  silver,  failure  of,  .  .  .    86,  87 

Free  coinage  of  silver,  folly  of,      .  .     103,  123,  133,  151,  211 

Free  silver  party,  objects  of,     .  .  .  .  .10 

Freight  charges,  reduction  in,  .  .  .  195 

French  ratio  disturbance,          .....          85 

Grain,  decline  in  price  of,  .  185 

Gold,  accumulation  of,  .  .  .  .  .115 

Gold  and  silver  in  circulation,  1892,          ...  93 

Gold  and  silver,  total  value,      .....          76 

Gold,  appreciation  of,  .  .  .  .  113 

Gold,  as  a  standard,       .....     107,  108,  190 

Gold,  as  a  medium  of  exchange,    ....  109 

Gold,  at  a  premium,      .  ...  .  .  104,  105 

Gold,  bank's  interest  in,     .  .  .  .  .  128 

Gold,  money  lenders'  interest  in,  .  .  .121 

Gold  bonds,  .  .  .  .  .144,  145 

Gold  bullion  and  coinage,         .....          76 

Gold  coin,  increase  of,        .....  193 

Gold,  Coin's  cube  of,     .  .  .  .  .  .145 

Gold,  exports  from  U.  S.,  .  .  .  .  118,  119,  120 

Gold,  fluctuation  in  value  of,    .  .  .  .  .        161 

Gold,  increase  in,  since  1873,         ....  95 

Gold,  increase  in  world's  stock,  .  .  .  .112 

Gold,  how  it  should  be  de-hoarded,  .  .  .  144 

Gold,  most  durable  for  coinage,  ....          52 

Gold,  national  bank  reserves  of,     .  .  .  .  144 

Gold  production  1841-1893,      .....          72 

Gold  reserve  of  the  U.  S 144,145 

Gold  reserve,  French,    ......        103 

Gold  standard,  when  adopted,        ....  125 

Gold  standard,  wages  and  prices  under,          .  .     179,  180,  181 

Gold  standard,  prosperity  under,  .  .  .  181 

Gold,  uses  of,      .  .  .  .  .  .  .109 

Gold,  we  command  the  world's,     ....  130 

Gold,  world's  stock  of,  .....          55 

Haye,  Reuben,  testimony  of,         ...  60,  130,  152 

High  prices, 129 

Hopkins,  John  P ,      191,192 

Implements,  4ecline  in  prfge.  of,         ,         f  187 


216  INDEX. 

Increase  of  gold  and  silver  compared,  .  .  76,  77,  78 

Index  numbers,  use  of,  .  .  .  .  177 

Index  numbers,  Atkinson's,  unprejudiced,      .  .  .         189 

India,  coinage  of,  .  .  .  .  .  151 

Inflation  in  France,        .  .  .  .  .  .        104 

Inflation  in  the  U.  S.,          .....  143 

Interest,  reduction  of,    .  .  .  .  .  .         193 

Iron  and  steel  industries,     .....      187,  188 

Jones,  of  Nevada,  quoted,          .  .  .  .  .71 

Jones,  speech  of,  .  .  .  .  .  171 

Jones'  challenge  to  Atkinson,  ....        175 

Kuott,  R.  W.,  testimony  of,  ....        93,  134 

Kohlsaat,  H.  H.,  testimony  of,  .  .  .  160,161 

Labor,  degradation  of  ...  54,  105,  212 

lyaughlin,  J.  L.,  testimony  of,  ...  86,  123 

McCabe,  Robert  !,.,  testimony  of,      .  .  .  .         106 

Meat,  prices  of,         ...... 

Metals,  decline  in  price  of,  .  .  .  .         187 

Mint,  established,    .....  42 

Money,  cheapness  of,  .....         103 

Money,  fundamental  principles  of, 

Money,  in  circulation,    .....  102,  141 

Money,  increase  of  since  1873,        .  .  .          103,  142,  193 

Money,  credit,  value  of,  .  .  ;  .  .112 

Money  of  the  constitution,  .  .  .  .33,  207 

Money  of  the  people,     ...  .        53,  61,  62 

Money  of  various  countries, 

Money  of  U.  S.  as  compared  with  other  nations, 

Money,  test  of  value  of,  .  .  .  .  129 

Money,  unit,       .....  .    39,  4 

Money,  only  uses  of, 

Money,  value  of  paper,  etc.,    .  .  .     112,  141,  142 

Money,  primary,  fallacy  exploded, 

Monetary  standards,  various, 

Oriental  demand  theory  proved, 

Panics,  ......  199 

Panic  of  1873, 

Panic  of  1893,  ....    120,  128,  129,  131,  176 

Pawnbrokers,  capital  of,  .....         153 

Prices  before  and  after  demonetization,  178,  193,  200,  201,  202,  203 

Prices,  falsely  quoted  by  coin, 

Post  office,  increase  since  1873,     . 

Ratio,  commercial,  how  maintained,    .  .  80,  82 

Ratio,  legal,  can  not  be  maintained,         .  85,  86 

Ratio  in  China,  ..... 

Ratio,  Coin's  absurd  ideas  of, 

Ratio,  increased  to  16  to  1, 

Repudiation,  .... 

Remonetization,  ..... 


INDEX.  217 

Rich  man's  money,  .  ....  52 

Richards,  J.  W.,  testimony  of,  ....        160 

Savings  banks,  depositors,  etc.,  .  .  .  134 

Sherman  act,  failure  of,  ....  114,  122 

Silver,  added  to  coinage  since  1873,  .  .  95,  130,  210 

Silver,  annual  value  of,  .....        128 

Silver  and  gold  in  the  world,  1890,  .  .     63,  145,  147, 148 

Silver  and  gold  in  the  world,  various  periods,  .  .          76 

Silver  basis,  effect  of,  .  .  .  .  •  131 

Silver  bullion  and  coin,  various  periods,         .  .  76,  210 

Silver  coinage,  1801-1850,    .....  80 

Silver  coinage,  1873-1893,         .....        210 

Silver  coinage  in  France,  40  years,  ...  85 

Silver  compared  with  gold,  by  weight,  .  .  .74,  75 

Silver's  decline  in  value,      .  .  .57,  58,  72,  75,  82,  190 

Silver,  demand  for,         ......    80,  81 

Silver,  demontizatipn  of,      .  .  .        56,  58,  69,  83,  92,  211 

Silver  dollar  established,  .....          39 

Silver,  evil  effect  of  coining  too  much,      .  .  .  122 

Silver,  imports  of  into  France,  ....          85 

Silver,  imports  of  into  Asia,  ....  85 

Silver  industry,  men  employed  and  value,      •  .  .        128 

Silver  in  circulation,        '.....  62 

Silver,  increase  since  1873,        .....          95 

Silver,  mined  at  a  loss,         .  .  .  .  64,  65 

Silver,  over-production  of,        .     71,  72,  113,  114,  150,  151,  152,  210 
Silver  production,  1850-1870,          ....  71 

Silver  production,  1891-1893,    .  .  .  .  .    64,  65 

Silver,  remonetization  of,    .  .  .  .  .110,  210 

Silver  propaganda,  frauds  of,  ....        131 

Silver,  why  commercial  ratio  of  was  maintained,  .  73 

Silver  senators  prefer  gold,       .....         131 

Standards  of  weight  and  measure,  .  .  .      106,  107 

Stone,  George  F.,  Testimony  of,  ....         164 

Table  of  gold  and  silver  coin  and  bullion,  .  .  76 

Table  of  production  of  gold  and  silver,  1851-1893,     .  .          91 

Table  of  production  of  gold  and  silver,  1801-1893,  .  79 

Table,  Trade  and  money  of  four  leading  nations,       .  .         142 

Table,  Average  export  prices  falsified  by  Com,  .  166 

Table,  Average  export  prices  of  corn,  oats,  cotton  and 

silver,  1870-1895,    ......        174 

Table  of  prices,  wages  and  purchasing  power,  1860-1890,  178 

Table  of  wages  in  1860  and  1890,          .  .  .  .189 

Tables  of  produce  prices,    .....       200,  202 

Tables  of  Farmers'  supplies,     .  201,  203 

Taxes,  reduction  in,  ... 

Telegraphing,  reduced  cost  of,  ....        194 

Treasury,  raids  on,  .....  143 

Unit  of  value,  Coin's  argument,  .  .  .31 


218  INDEX. 

Unit  of  value  was  abstract,              .            .                    '    .  45 

Unit  of  value  established  by  Act  of  Congress,            .  .    35,  36 

Value  of  gold  and  silver,  various  periods,             .            .  76 
Value  of  bullion  and  coinage,               ....          76 

Value  of  silver  produced  annually,           .            .            .  128 

Value  of  all  property  in  U.  S.,             .            .            .  .152 

Value  not  fixed  by  law,     .              .            .            .            .  Ill 

Wages  in  1865,           ......  129,  130 

Wages  in  the  fifties,      .....  198,  199 

Wages,  how  affected  by  cheap  money,     .            .          177,  178,  179 

Wages,  under  the  gold  standard,         .            .            .  188,  189 

Wealth,  under  gold  standard,        ....  197 

War  with  England,        .            .            .            .            .  .140 

Wheat,  illustration  exposed,        .            .            .            .  115 

Wheat,  decline  in  price  of,      .            .            .            .  159,  184 

Williams,  Joshua,  testimony  of,    .             .             .            .  198 

Yard  stick  illustration,                          .            .            .  .110 

Zeisler,  Sigmund,  testimony  of,   .           .           .            .  172 


GOLD  AND  SILVER.  103 


HISTORY  OF  GOLD  AND  SILVER. 

In  remote  antiquity  the  value  of  silver  seems  every- 
where to  have  been  equal  to  that  of  gold.  In  some 
countries,  as  for  instance,  Ancient  Germany  and  Ancient 
Arabia,  silver  was  more  valuable  than  gold.  As  late  as 
the  17th  century  of  our  era  gold  and  silver  were  valued 
equally  in  Japan.  In  the  Orient,  generally,  the  ratio 
between  the  two  metals  was  less  than  in  Europe,  even 
down  to  the  middle  of  the  19th  century,  and  the  result 
was  the  absorption  of  immense  quantities  of  silver  in  the 
East. 

1594  B.  C.    Cadmus  mined  gold  in  Thrace. 
1400  B.  C.    Gold  and  silver  used  as  money  in  Egypt, 

India  and  Arabia. 
1100  B.  C.    The  Phoenicians  worked  the  gold  placers  of 

the  Guadalquiver  in  Spain. 
480  to  206  B.  C.    Silver  mines  of  Spain  were  worked  by 

the  Carthaginians. 
450  B.  C.    Herodotus  states  the  ratio  to  be  13  to  1  in 

Greece. 
330  B.  C.    Alexander  the  great  won  by  the  conquest  of 

Asia  over  $300,000,000  of  gold  and  silver. 
60  B.  C.    Ratio  in  Rome  9  to  1. 

14  A.  D.    Amount  of  precious  metals  in  the  civilized 
world  estimated  at  $1,800,000,000.    The  drain  to  the 
East  began  at  this  period. 
650  A.  D.    In  Arabia,  ratio  6J;  in  France,  10. 
800  A.  D.    Total  supply  of  precious  metals  about  $165,- 
000,000.    At  this  time  the  Moors  reopened  the  mines 
in  Spain.    Mines  discovered  in  Saxony,  Harz  Moun- 
tains and  in  Austria.    Supply  of  precious  metals 
remained  about  stationery  until  the  discovery  of 
America. 

1257.    Gold  coins  first  introduced  in  England. 
1442.    Goncales  Baldeza  returned  from  a  voyage  to  West 
Africa,  and  brought  with  him  the  first  gold  from  the 
western  coast  of  that  continent. 


104  ..OLD  AND  SILVER. 

1471.  The  silver  mines  at  Schneeberg,  Saxony,  were  first 
worked;  up  to  1500  the  yield  is  estimated  to  have 
been  more  than  160  tons  of  silver,  but  after  that  year 
the  output  decreased  rapidly. 

1492.  Discovery  of  America  by  Columbus,  whose  chief 
object  of  search  was  gold,  which  he  found  in  consid- 
erable quantity  among  the  natives  of  the  islands  he 
reached. 

1497.    In  Spain  the  ratio  was  lOf  to  1. 

1516.  The  silver  mines  at  Joachimstahl,  Bohemia,  were 
in  flourishing  condition  at  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
*  teenth  century.  In  1516  some  8,000  miners  were 
employed  there. 

1521 .  Conquest  of  Mexico  by  Fernando  Corte*s. 

1522.  The  first  silver  sent  to  Europe  from  the  mines  of 
Mexico  was  obtained  from  Tasco,  discovered  by  the 
Spaniards  this  year.     These  mines,  together  with 
those  of  Pachuca,  are  considered  the  oldest  in  Mexico, 
some  of  them  having  been  long  worked  by  the  Aztecs 
at  the  time  of  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards. 

1527.  There  are  no  documents  to  show  when  silver- 
mining  was  first  begun  at  Przibram,  Bohemia,  but, 
according  to  the  municipal  records,  a  concession  to 
reopen  the  mines  was  granted  in  1527. 

1532.    Conquest  of  Peru  by  Francisco  Pizarro. 

1537.  Gold-mining  was  begun  by  the  Spaniards  in  New 
Granada  (Republic  of  Columbia). 

1540.  Work  was  begun  by  the  Spaniards  in  the  silver 
mines  of  Zacatecas,  Mexico. 

1545.  Discovery  of  the  famous  silver  mines  of  Potosi, 
Bolivia. 

1548.    First  discovery  of  silver  at  Guanajuato,  Mexico. 

1555.  The  silver  mines  at  Sombrerete,  Zacatecas,  Mexico, 
began  to  produce. 

1557.  Invention  of  the  patio  process  of  silver  amalgama- 
tion by  Bartolome  de  Medina,  of  Pachua,  Mexico. 

1571.  The  Huancevalica  quicksilver  mines  in  Peru  first 
began  to  produce  in  noteworthy  quantity.  This  was 
an  important  event,  as  an  abundant  supply  of  mer- 
cury for  the  amalgamation  of  Potosi  ore  was  thereby 
obtained. 

1574.    The  patio  process  was  introduced  in  Peru. 


GOLD  AND  SIL  VER.  105 

1575.    Discovery  of  the  silver  mines  of  Oruro,  Bolivia. 

1577.  The  placers  of  Brazil  were  first  discovered  this 
year,  but  they  were  not  actively  worked  until  1674, 
and  their  product  did  not  begin  to  be  important  un- 
til 1695. 

1590.  Invention  of  the  system  of  copper-pan  or  "cazo" 
amalgamation  by  Alonzo  Barba,  Potosi,  Bolivia. 

1609.  Holland  maintained  from  1609  to  1816  a  silver 
monetary  standard,  giving  gold  a  nominal  valuation 
at  a  ratio  14.7  to  1. 

1623.  Discovery  of  silver  at  Kongsberg,  Norway;  the 
works  at  that  place  were  established  the  same 
year. 

1630.  Discovery  of  the  famous  silver  mines  of  Cerro  de 
Pasco,  Peru. 

1632.  Discovery  of  the  silver  mines  of  Batopilas.  Chi- 
huahua, Mexico. 

1633.  Invention  of  the  aludel  furnace  for  the  reduction 
of  quicksilver,  by  L.  S.  Barba,  a  Peruvian;  this  was 
the  first  efficient  furnace  devised  for  this  purpose. 

1666.    Discovery  of  the  silver  mines  of  Cusihuiriachic, 

Chihuahua,  Mexico. 
1688.    Silver  was  the  legal  measure  of  value  in  Hamburg, 

a  city  of  extensive  commerce,  from  1688  until  recent 

times,  but  gold  was  also  coined  at  a  ratio  of  14|  to  1. 
1695.    The  rich  placers  of  Minas  Geraes,  Brazil,  began  to 

produce  largely. 
1702.    Establishment  of  the  school  of  mines  at  Freiberg, 

Saxony. 
1704.    Discovery  of  the  silver  mines  at  Santa  Eulalia, 

Chihuahua,  Mexico. 
Discovery  of  silver  at  Nertschinsk,  Siberia,  and  the  first 

regular  mining  of  precious  metals  in  that  country  was 

begun. 
1710.    The  metallurgical  works  at  Freiberg,  Saxony,  was 

begun. 
1717.    From  1717  to  1816,  the  legal  ratio  between  gold 

and  silver  in  England  was  15i  to  1. 
1737.    Discovery  of  gold  near  Voitsk,  Government   of 

Archangel,  Russia. 
1745.    Important  discovery  of  gold-bearing  quartz  on  the 

Beriozofsk  Kiver,  near  Ekaterinburg,  in  the  Ural, 


106  GOLD  AND  SILVER. 

Russia.  Gold-mining  was  also  commenced  on  Snake 
Mountain,  in  the  Altai  Range,  Siberia. 

1762.  Discovery  of  the  great  silver  bonanza  of  Real  del 
Monte,  Mexico. 

1771.  Discovery  of  the  rich  silver  mines  of  Hualgayo, 
Peru. 

1774.  The  first  placers  in  the  Ural  were  discovered  this 
year,  quartz  lodes  having  been  opened  nearly  thirty 
years  previous. 

1778.  The  silver  mines  of  Catorce,  Mexico,  were  opened 
and  proved  to  be  rich. 

1783.  Zambrano  discovered  the  famous  silver  mines  of 
Guarisamey,  Durango,  Mexico. 

1786.  Prior  to  the  Constitution  of  1789,  the  Congress  of 
the  American  States  had,  in  1786,  established  a  double 
monetary  standard  with  a  ratio  of  15£  to  1,  the  dollar 
having  been  established  as  the  monetary  unit  in  1785. 

1790.  Barrel  amalgamation  was  introduced  at  the  metal- 
lurgical works  at  Freiberg,  Saxony. 

1792.  The  famous  bonanza  at  Sombrerete,  Zacatecas, 
Mexico,  was  discovered  this  year,  the  mines  at  that 
place  having  been  worked  for  more  than  two  cen- 
turies. 

The  legal  ratio  between  gold  and  silver  in  the  United 
States  was  made  15  to  1,  by  the  act  of  Congress  cre- 
ating a  mint. 

1793.  Mules  and  horses  were  used  in  Mexico,  for  the 
first  time,  for  mixing  the  pulp,  mercury,  and  chem- 
icals in  the  patio  process,  saving  75  per  cent  in  the  cost 
of  this  branch  of  working;  prior  to  this  time,  the 
operation  had  been  performed  entirely  by  human 
labor. 

1798.    Discovery  of  the  great  bonanza  (silver)  at  Ramos, 

Mexico. 
1803.    France  adopted  the  double  monetary  standard  at  a 

ratio  of  15*  to  1;    previous  to  the  Revolution,  the 

ratio  between  gold  and  silver  in  that  country  had 

been  15  to  1. 
1805.    The  gold  mines  of  the  Ancosta  district,  Bolivia, 

commenced  to  yield. 
1810.    Discovery  of  silver  at  El  Refugio,  Chihuahua 

Mexico. 


GOLD  AND  SILVER.  107 

18io.    Discovery  of  the  Melkowa  placers,  Siberia. 
England  adopted  the  gold  standard  by  act  of  Parliament 

of  this  year. 
Silver  was  the  sole  standard  in  Holland  until  this  year, 

when  the  double  standard  was  adopted  at  a  ratio  of 

15.873  to  1. 
1821.    Resumption  of  specie  payments  in  gold  by  the 

Bank  of  England. 
1824.    Discovery  of  silver   at   Palmarejo,    Chihuahua, 

Mexico. 
The  silver  mines  of  Fresnillo,  Zacatecas,  Mexico,  were 

opened. 

1829.  Discovery  of  gold  mines  in  Georgia;  first  mining 
excitement  in  the  United  States. 

1830.  Discovery  of  the  placers  of  the  Altai  Mountains, 
Siberia. 

Discovery  of  the  silver  mines  of  Guadalcanal,  Spain. 

1832.  The  silver  mines  of  Chanarcillo,  near  Copiapo, 
Chile,  were  opened. 

1834.  The  legal  ratio  betwen  gold  and  silver  in  the 
United  States  was  made  16  to  1. 

1837.  The  St.  John  del  Key  Mining  Company,  operating 
the  Morro  Velho  gold  mine  in  Brazil,  commenced  to 
produce  largely. 

1839.  Count  Strzelecki  is  said  to  have  found  gold  in  New 
South  Wales  in  1839,  but  in  deference  to  the  wishes 
of  the  Governor,  Sir  G.  Phippff,  the  discovery  was 
kept  secret,  the  colony  being  then  a  penal  one.  In 
1841,  Rev.  W.  Clark  also  found  gold,  and  in  1847  he 
called  the  attention  of  the  colonists  to  the  auriferous 
character  of  the  country.  The  value  of  the  diggings 
was  not  realized,  however,  until  Hargreaves  made 
his  discovery  in  1851. 

1843.  The  Augustin  process  of  working  silver  ores  was 
introduced  at  the  Gottesbelohnung  Hutte,  near  Mans- 
feld,  Germany,  and  later  in  the  year  at  the  Freiberg 


Discovery  of  the  silver  mines  of  Hien  de  la  Encina,  in 
Guadalajara,  Spain. 

1847.  Holland  again  adopted  the  silver  standard. 

1848.  On  January  19,  Marshall  discovered  gold  at  Co- 
loma,  Cal.    This  find  started  the  rush  of  gold-seekers 


108  GOLD  AND  SILVER. 

to  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  by  the  end  of  the  year 
*    numerous  discoveries  of  the  precious  metal  had  been 
made  in  various  portions  of  the  State,  notably  along 
the  American  and  Feather  rivers. 

The  'Ziervogel  process  for  treating  silver  ores  was  in- 
troduced at  Freiberg,  superseding  the  Augustin 
process. 

1849.  Discovery  of  gold  in  the  bed  of  the  Yuruari  River, 
Venezuela,  but  the  region  did  not  become  the  scene 
of  great  operations  until  several  years  later. 

Discovery  of  gold  in  Gold  Canon,  Nevada;  an  important 
event,  as  it  eventually  led  to  the  discovery  of  the 
Comstock  lode. 

1850.  Belgium  adopted  the  single  silver  monetary  stand- 
ard. 

Quartz  mining  was  begun  in  California. 

1851.  Discovery  of  gold  in  New  South  Wales  by  Har- 
greaves. 

Discovery  of  gold  at  Ballarat  and  Bendigo,  in  Victoria, 
following  close  upon  the.  discoveries  in  New  South 
Wales. 

Work  was  begun  at  the  quicksilver  mines  of  New  A\- 
maden,  California. 

1852.  Discovery  of  gold  in  South  Australia  and  Tas- 
mania. 

Invention  of  the  process  of  hydraulic  mining  in  Cali- 
fornia by  Edward  E.  Mattison,  a  native  of  Connecti- 
cut. 

1857.  Discovery  of  gold  in  New  Zealand. 
Suspension  of  specie  payments  by  Kussia. 

The  German  States,  including  Austria,  adopted  a  single 
silver  standard. 

1858.  Discovery  of  gold  at  Canoona,  Queensland. 

The  Patera  process  was  introduced  at  Joachimsthal,  Bo- 
hemia; the  use  of  sodium  hyposulphite  as  a  lixiviaiit 
for  silver  ores  having  been  first  suggested  by  Dr. 
Percy  in  1848. 

1859.  The  Comstock  lode,  Nevada,  was  discovered  early 
in  the  year  by  O'Reilly  and  McLaughlin,  at  the  point 
where  the  Ophir  mine  is  located.  The  Grosh  brothers 
found  silver  in  this  vicinity  several  years  previous, 
but  their  discovery  came  to  naught. 


GOLD  AND  STIVER.  109 

Discovery  of  gold  in  the  Fraser  River  region,  British 
Columbia. 

Pike's  Peak  excitement;  discovery  of  gold  placers  in  Gil- 
pin  County,  Colorado,  in  California  Gulch,  and  at 
Breckenridge. 

1860.  Invention  of  the  Washoe  process  of  pan  amalga- 
mation by  Almarin  B.  Paul  and  James  Smith. 

Discovery  of  the  Gould  &  Curry  and  Savage  bonanzas  in 
the  Comstock  lode. 

Discovery  of  the  placers  of  the  Boise  Basin  in  Idaho. 

After  seventeen  centuries  of  neglect  the  silver-lead 
mines  of  Laurium,  in  Greece,  were  reopened,  a 
French  company  having  obtained  a  concession  of 
the  property. 

1801.  Belgium  returned  to  the  double  monetary  stand- 
ard. 

Discovery  of  gold  in  Nova  Scotia. 

Discovery  of  rich  placers  in 'Oregon. 

1862.  Suspension  of  specie  payments  by  the  United 
States. 

First  important  discoveries  of  gold  in  Montana. 
Discovery  of  silver  in  the  Reese  River  district,  Nevada. 

1863.  First  discoveries  of  argentiferous  lead  ores  in  Little 
Cotton  wood  Canon,  Utah. 

1864.  First  locations  at  Eureka,  Nevada,  but  no  im- 
portant  discoveries  (silver-lead)   were  made    until 
the   fall    of    1869.      Claims    were   also   located   at 
Pioche,    in  the  same  State,   though  operations  at 
that  place  did  not  become  successful  until  several 
years  later. 

Discovery  of  rich  placers  in  Last  Chance  Gulch,  Mon- 
tana; placers  were  also  located  at  Butte. 

Discovery  of  the  Yellow  Jacket-Kentuck-Crown  Point 
and  Belcher  bonanzas  in  the  Comstock  lode. 

1865.  Establishment  of  the  Latin  Union,  consisting  of 
France,  Italy,  Switzerland,  and  Belgium,  providing 
for  a  double  monetary  standard  at  a  ratio  of  15£  to  1, 
the  agreement  to  hold  good  until  1880. 

Discovery  of  the  silver  lodes  at  Phillipsbur<r,  Deer  Lodge 
County,  Montana,  but  it  was  not  until  1881  that  the 
great  Granite  Mountain  mine  began  to  develop  '"^o 
a  bonanza. 


110  GOLD  AND  SIL  VER. 

Discovery  of  the  Chollar-Potosi  bonanza  in  the  Cometock 
lode. 

1866.  Italy  suspended  specie  payments. 

Discovery  of  the  Overman-Segregated  Belcher-Caledonia 
and  Hale  &  Norcross  bonanzas  in  the  Comstock 
lode. 

Discovery  of  the  famous  El  Callao  mine,  Yuruari  district, 
Venezuela. 

1867.  First  international  monetary  conference  convened 
in  Paris  by  the  French  Government,  at  which  twenty 
nations,  comprising  all  the  important  countries  of 
Europe  and  America  were  represented. 

Discovery  of  rich  deposits  of  silver  ore  at  White  Pine, 
Nev.;  these  were  the  first  large  bodies  of  silver  ore 
found  in  a  limestone  formation  in  the  United  States, 
and  the  information  gained  from  them  led  directly 
to  the  discovery  of  the  silver-lead  deposits  of  Eureka 
soon  afterwards. 

The  smelting  works  of  the  Boston  &  Colorado  Smelting 
Company  were  established  at  Black  Hawk,  Colorado; 
thia  was  an  important  step  for  the  development  of 
the  mines  of  Gilpin  County  and  other  districts  in 
Colorado. 

Discovery  of  the  Thames  gold-field  on  the  north  island  of 
New  Zealand. 

1868.  Greece  joined  the  Latin  Union. 

Discovery  of  gold  in  Western  Australia,  but  it  was  not 

until  1887  that  any  diggings  of  importance  were 

found. 
The  Emma  silver  mine,  Little  Cotton  wood,  Utah,  was 

located  in  August  of  this  year,  but  no  large  shipments 

were  made  until  July,  1870. 
Discovery  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  bonanza  in  the  Comstock 

lode. 

1869.  Discovery  of  the  important  silver-lead  deposits  of 
Eureka,  Nevada.    The   American    practice   of  lead 
smelting  has  been  developed  chiefly  from  the  meth- 
ods adopted  in  this  district. 

The  Pacific  Railway  was  completed,  and  prospecting 
along  its  line  was  greatly  stimulated. 

The  Sutro  tunnel  to  open  the  Comstock  lode  was  com- 
menced Oct.  19. 


GOLD  AND  SIL  VEB.  Ill 

Discovery  of  promising  deposits  of  silver  ore  at  Pioche, 

Nev. 
Copper  silver  ore  was  discovered  at  Butte,  Montana, 

and    a   smelting    furnace    erected    at   the    Parrott 

mine. 

1870.  Great  silver  deposits  were  discovered  at  Caracoles, 
about  120  miles  inland  in  the  desert  province  of 
Atacama,  Chile,  on  the  Bolivian  frontier. 

The  silver  mines  of  Eureka  and  Pioche,  Nevada,  became 
large  producers. 

1871.  The  German  Empire,  by  Act  of  Dec.  4,  assumed 
the  sovereign  right  of  coinage  and  adopted  the  gold 
standard;  the  mintage  of  silver  was  discontinued. 

Discovery  of  the  great  Crown  Point-Belcher  bonanza  in 

the  Comstock  lode. 
The  mines  of  Big  and  Little  Cotton  wood,  Utah,  made 

large  shipments. 

1872.  Discovery  of  silver  at  Georgetown,  New  Mexico. 
The  Ontario  vein  (silver),  Park  City,  Utah,  was  located 

June  19. 

1873.  The  United  States,  by  Act  of  Congress,  Feb.  12, 
discontinued  the  coinage  of  silver  dollars.    This  Act 
did  not  demonetize  silver  in  words,  although  it  did 
so  in  effect.    The  silver  dollar  is  not  named  in  it. 
Precisely  what  the  Act  did  was  to  authorize  the 
coinage  of   silver  half-dollars,  quarter-dollars,  and 
dimes  below  standard  weight,  and  of  a  new  silver 
coin  for  Asiatic  commerce,  of  standard  weight,  to  be 
called  the  "trade  dollar,"  and  to  prohibit  these  coins 
from  being  legal  tender  for  more  than  five  dollars  in 
any  one  payment. 

Discovery  of  the  "Big  Bonanza"  in  the  Consolidated 

California  &  Virginia  mines  on  the  Comstock  lode. 
The  German  Government,  by  Act  of  July  9,  provided 

for  the  retirement  of  its  silver  coins  and  the  sale  of 

the  bullion. 
By  a  Treasury  order,  Sept.  6,  France  limited  the  amount 

of  silver  to  be  accepted  by  its  mint. 

1874.  A  year  of  great  excitement  on  the  Comstock,  the 
"Big  Bonanza"  beginning  to  yield  largely,  while 
another  bonanza  was  discovered  in  the  Ophir  mine. 

Silver  was  demonetized  by  the  Scandinavian  States, 


112  GOLD  AND  81L  VEB. 

Discovery  of  promising  silver  mines,  including  the  Silver 
King,  in  the  Final  Range,  Arizona. 

Early  in  the  year  argentiferous  lead-carbonate  ore  was 
found  on  Iron  Hill,  Leadville,  and  the  Lime  and  Rock 
claims  were  located. 

By  an  agreement  made  in  January  of  this  year,  the  Latin 
Union  was  to  limit  the  coinage  of  silver,  exclusive  of 
subsidiary  coins,  to  the  following  sums  for  three 
years:  1874, 140,000,000  francs;  1875, 150,000,000  francs; 
1876,  108,000,000  franco.  Any  nation  in  the  Union  had 
the  right  to  decline  coining  its  quota  of  this  amount 
any  year. 

1875.  Holland,  by  Act  of  June  6,  suspended  mintage  of 
silver  for  private  account,  and  established  gold  coin- 
age with  unlimited  legal-tender  functions,  with  a 
ratio  of  15.604  to  1;  this  was  a  provisional  law,  to  last 
only  until  Jan.  1,  1877. 

Switzerland  declined  to  coin  its  quota  of  silver  assigned 
by  the  agreement  of  the  Latin  Union. 

1876.  First  shipments  of  silver-lead  ore   from  Leadville, 
Colo. 

Discovery  of  silver-lead  ore  at  Frisco,  Utah,  and  the 
Horn  Silver  mine  was  opened  this  year. 

In  July  was  brought  the  first  suit  of  the  farmers  in  Cali- 
fornia against  hydraulic  miners,  and  from  this  time 
the  debris  question  became  a  burning  subject  of  dis- 
cussion. 

The  gold  fields  of  Black  Hills,  Dakota,  began  to  attract 
much  attention. 

Discovery  of  the  Drumlummon  ledge  (gold)  at  Marys- 
ville,  Mont. 

Belgium  suspended  the  coinage  of  silver. 

France  discontinued  the  mintage  of  silver,  except  for 
subsidiary  coins,  until  January,  1878,  by  Proclama- 
tion of  the  President,  in  accordance  with  the  Act  of 
August  5,  1876. 

A  royal  decree  was  issued  in  Spain  interdicting  the  coin- 
age of  silver  except  on  Government  account,  and  de- 
claring it  to  be  the  intention  of  the  Government  to 
limit  the  legal-tender  function  of  silver  to  150  pesetas 
(about  $30)  after  it  had  obtained  a  sufficient  amount 
of  gold  to  make  this  step  practicable. 


GOLD  AND  SILVER.  113 

Bussia  suspended  the  coinage  of  silver  for  individuals, 
excepting  the  amount  of  silver  money  needed  for 
trade  with  China. 

By  Act  of  Congress  of  the  United  States,  August  15,  a  ' 
silver  commission  was  created  which  reported  on 
March  2,  1877. 

1877.  Discovery  of  rich  silver  veins  at  Silver  Cliff, 
Colorado,  including  the  Bassick  and  Bull-Domingo 
mines. 

The  curious  argentiferous  sandstone  deposits  of  Silver 
Reef,  Washington  County,  Utah,  had  been  known 
since  1871,  and  a  mining  district  was  organized  there 
in  1874,  but  the  mines  did  not  commence  to  produce 
until  1876. 

Jl878.  On  Feb.  28,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
passed  an  Act  ordaining  the  coinage  ($2,000,000  per 
month  at  least,  $4,000,000  at  most)  on  Government 
account  of  silver  dollars  of  412^  grains,  900  fine,  and 
and  made  them  full  legal  tender  except  where  ex- 
pressly stipulated  otherwise  by  contract. 

An  international  monetary  conference  was  held  in  Au- 
gust at  Paris. 

Great  excitement  at  Leadville,  Colo.,  where  many  new 
discoveries  were  made. 

The  'first  locations  at  Tombstone,  Ariz.,  were  filed  and 
the  next  year  the  mines  (silver)  there  commenced  to 
produce  largely. 

Discovery  of  the  silver-lead  deposits  of  Sierra  Mojada, 
Coahuila,  Mexico. 

1879.  The  German  Government  discontinued  it  sales  of 
silver  on  May  16. 

Resumption  of  specie  payments  by  the  United  States. 

Discovery  of  promising  veins  of  silver  ore  at  Aspen, 
Colo.,  and  in  the  San  Juan  region  in  the  southwest- 
ern part  of  the  same  State. 

1880.  Reported  existence  of  promising  gold  reins  in  the 
Colar  fields  of  Mysore,  Southern  India,  which  were 
subsequently  opened  and  became  large  producers. 

1881.  Discovery  of   silver  ore    at    Lake    Valley,  New 
Mexico. 

First  important  discoveries  of  silver  ore  in  the  Calico 
district,  California. 


114  GOLD  AND  SIL  VER. 

1882.  Decision  of  the  courts  prohibiting  hydraulic  min- 
ing in  the  valleys  of  navigable'  rivers  of  California. 

1883.  The  Mount  Morgan  gold  mine,  at  Rockhampton, 
Queensland,  began  to  produce. 

The  Broken  Hill  mine  (silver-lead)  in  New  South  Wales, 
Australia,  was  discovered  in  September. 

1884.  Discovery  of  gold  in  de  Kaap  district  of  the  Trans- 
vaal, South  Africa. 

1885.  Discovery  of  the  silver-lead  deposits  of  the  Coaur 
d'Alene  region,  Idaho. 

The  first  important  discoveries  in  the  "banket"  forma- 
tion, Witwatersrand,  Transvaal,  South  Africa,  were 
made  during  this  year,  but  active  operations  were 
not  commenced  until  1887. 

1890.  Act  of  Congress,  July  14,  repealing  the  law  of  1878 
and  providing  for  the  purchase  of  4,500,000  ounces  of 
silver  monthly,  against  which  certificates  are  issued, 
redeemable  in  either  gold  or  silver. 

Establishment  of  the  silver-lead  smelting  industry  in 
Mexico. 

1891.  The  gold  fields  of  Mashonaland,  South  Africa,  be- 
gan to  attract  attention. 

Large  exports  of  gold  from  New  York  and  purchases  by 
Russia. 

Discovery  of  silver  ore  at  Creede,  Colo.,  and  gold  at 
Cripple  Creek,  in  the  same  State. 

Austro-Hungary  adopted  the  gold  monetary  standard. 

Third  international  monetary  conference  held  in  Brus- 
sels on  invitation  of  the  United  States,  adjourning  in 
December  without  result. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  large  exports  of  gold  from  the 
United  States,  causing  a  very  unsettled  feeling  in 
financial  affairs. 

1893.    India  ceased  coining  silver. 

Financial  panic  in  the  U.  S.,  due  to  the  large  purchases 
of  silver  and  the  consequent  fear  that  the  U.  S.  would 
be  forced  to  a  silver  basis.  Act  of  1890  repealed. 


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LIBRARY 


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Financial     .SV-//oo/''     is     </ notctl  rcrlxit: in  lie /•>/' n 
an'.!  absolutely  rcfntal,    irilli    (li<>    true    quotation 
•     I/K'     rcrif    authorities    "Coin"     has 
falsijico'. 


